IN DER ZOR, ARMENIAN PRESIDENT CHALLENGES TURKEY
by Emil Sanamyan
o/article/2010-03-24-in-der-zor-armenian-president -challenges-turkey&pg=2
Wednesday March 24, 2010
Condemns Genocide denial, demands justice in speech at "Armenian
Auschwitz"
Istanbul, Turkey – President Serge Sargsian condemned the denial of
Armenian Genocide and urged its worldwide condemnation as he spoke in
the Syrian desert of Der Zor where hundreds of thousands were killed
during the Armenian Genocide.
On visit to Syria this week, Mr. Sargsyan challenged the Turkish
government to end its discriminatory policy towards Armenia and
demanded that past wrongs be addressed.
"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?"," the president said in reference to the trials held
following the Holocaust.
Mr. Sargsyan also urged third parties not to use Armenia-Turkey
dialogue as an excuse to avoid condemnation of the Genocide.
U.S. officials and others have in recent months refused to support
affirmation efforts citing the protocols signed but not implemented
by Armenia and Turkey.
On March 19, during her visit to Russia, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton was asked about President Barack Obama’s pledge to recognize
the Genocide. Mrs. Clinton responded that Armenia and Turkey were
"working" to set up a "historical commission" to consider the issue.
Pres. Sargsyan argued that "it is irrelevant to cite some Commission
of Historians, since the Armenian-Turkish protocols provide for merely
a governmental sub-commission on historic dimension."
The Armenian president also appealed to "all those who will have
an occasion to express themselves on the topic of the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide, remember this desert, 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."
The full text of remarks is below:
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 desert, 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.