WE ARE, SHALL EXIST AND WILL FLOURISH

Yerkir
24.03.2010 17:01

Your Eminencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am here today since I could not but be here. It is the greatest
grief of my nation that has brought me here, the grief of the first
genocide of the 20th century and the greatest disgrace of the civilized
humanity. Up to this moment, in the 21st century, the stigma of that
disgrace still remains on the foreheads of all those who have turned
the denial of the evident facts into their policy, turned it into
their bargaining chip and into their lifestyle and norm of behavior.

In the desert of Deir ez Zor the most monstrous acts of the tragedy had
taken place, and it is neither possible to articulate the particulars
of that tragedy in the language of human beings, nor am I going do that
since these particulars are well-known even to those who publicly deny
the veracity of the Genocide. Bereft of home and property, bereft of
children and parents, bereft of health and the last hope, and finally
bereft of the most important – their homeland, these people were doomed
to lose the last thing they had – their life in accordance with the
state orchestrated and meticulously developed plan of extermination.

Quite often historians and journalists soundly compare Deir ez Zor
with Auschwitz saying that "Deir ez Zor is the Auschwitz of the
Armenians". I think that the chronology forces us to formulate the
facts in a reverse way: "Auschwitz is the Deir ez Zor of the Jews".

Only a generation later the humanity witnessed the Deir ez Zor of
the Jews. Today, as the President of the Republic of Armenia, the
homeland of all Armenians, I am here to ask: "Where and when will be
held our Nuremberg?"

I’m here to commemorate and to pray for the vast majority of my
slaughtered nation that had suffered both physical and cultural
extermination. I will elaborate neither on the quality, nor on the
quantity of the loss. Let me recall a single fact: as a result of
the Genocide the greatest share of the dialects of one of the most
ancient Indo-European languages – the Armenian – had been irreversibly
eradicated along with its speakers.

In spite of all that happened, we say that we are ready to establish
normal diplomatic relations with the modern Turkey, we are ready to
have open borders and economic relations, we are ready to make efforts
towards building confidence between the peoples of Armenia and Turkey,
we are ready to bring closer the two societies by breaking stereotypes
and myths that have nothing to do with the reality and developed in
decades of dearth of any sensible contacts.

We do this sincerely since we believe that there is no alternative to
the living and development between the neighbors through implementation
of what is proposed and still at the table, at least to start it
up. The signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols presented us with
an historic opportunity that should have a logical destine.

We, however, do not accept the style of references to the
Armenian-Turkish dialogue in attempts to avoid the recognition
of the Genocide. I do not think it helps the process. Moreover,
it is irrelevant to cite some Commission of Historians, since
the Armenian-Turkish protocols provide for merely a governmental
sub-commission on historic dimension. I assume everyone understands
what it means and what the difference is. I ask all those who will
have an occasion to elaborate or express themselves on the topic of
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide: remember of this dessert,
millions of ruined human fortunes and this ancient people deprived
of their motherland and with pain in their hearts, before you make
up your minds.

In 1915 the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century – 35 years old
Daniel Varuzhan and 37 years old Atom Yarjanian (Siamanto) had also
been slaughtered. Before being tortured to death, they were undressed,
because they wore European clothes. In those times and places European
clothes were quite expensive. The executioners dressed up into the
European clothes – stolen from the Armenian geniuses encompassing
millennia old civilization, stolen from ordinary Armenians.

I would not interpret symbols signified in these images but I am
unequivocally convinced: while preaching European apparel, manners
or values no one has a right to cast these images in oblivion.

I am here to remind of the well-known words: "It is impossible to kill
a nation that does not want to die". We mean to live and to grow. It
is no more possible to intimidate or blackmail us since we have seen
the most horrible. We shall continue to live and create with double
vigor for us and for our innocent victims. We look forward since we
have a lot to say and to share with each other, a lot to say and to
share with the world: the brightness and glow that Daniel Varuzhan
and Atom Yarjanian had no chance to share.

And here, in Deir ez Zor, we firmly and loudly say over and over
again that we are, shall exist and will flourish.