ACO Releases Statement on Armenian Genocide
By Contributor on January 26, 2015
The Action Chrétienne en Orient (ACO) Fellowship released the
following statement calling on its member churches to devote one
Sunday in 2015 to the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.
The Action Chrétienne en Orient was originally created to provide
assistance to the victims of the genocide that struck the Armenian
people at the beginning of the 20th century. Pastor Paul Berron, from
Alsace, was a direct witness to the terrible sufferings, and he began
his assistance in Aleppo in 1922. Since that moment, this work of
solidarity between Eastern and Western Christians has continued and
expanded.1
In 1995 in Kessab, Syria, those who continued and expanded Pastor
Berron’s work gathered in a Fellowship, developing a community in
which Lebanese, Syrian, Iranian, Swiss, Dutch, and French partners met
on an equal basis.
Twenty years after the creation of this Fellowship, our community
wishes to remember the Armenian Genocide and the Chaldean-Assyrian
Massacre, which began on April 24, 1915, just one century ago. The
Turkish government still denies the existence of this genocide.
We do not wish for vengeance or revenge and we welcome the work of
Turkish citizens, be they journalists, philosophers, historians, who
no longer want to obscure these dark pages of the history of their
country.
When a group, a government, a society, wants to eliminate another
human group only because of its religious, cultural, or ethnic
identity, it is genocide. And this is the worst crime against
humanity. For, when one part of humanity decides that another part is
not allowed to exist in this world, all of humanity is attacked…
When a group, a government, a society, wants to eliminate another
human group only because of its religious, cultural, or ethnic
identity, it is genocide. And this is the worst crime against
humanity. For, when one part of humanity decides that another part is
not allowed to exist in this world, all of humanity is attacked, and
its anthropological unity is denied. Our Christian faith gives us the
conviction that every human being is created by God; that Christ gave
his life and rose for him/her and so s/he is called to live the
fullness of life, to receive forgiveness and to be loved. It is not up
to one human being to decide whether life is worth living or not.
The 20th century has known other genocides. And until now, religious
minorities in the Middle East have to suffer because of awful violence
against them. ACO-Fellowship finds that this Centenary should not be a
mere commemoration of tragic events of the past but a call for
vigilance against any speech that aims at excluding from the human
community one of its components. Such speech must be fought and firmly
rejected.
ACO-Fellowship finds that this centenary should not be a mere
commemoration of tragic events of the past but a call for vigilance
against any speech that aims at excluding from the human community one
of its components. Such speech must be fought and firmly rejected.
With people of goodwill, from all origins, in the name of the victims’
inalienable dignity, the ACO Fellowship wants to be a witness to what
happened then, which broke so many human lives. It also wants to be a
witness to Christ, who calls the whole of humanity to a reconciled
life.
The ACO-Fellowship invites all its member churches, as well as other
churches and local communities in the Middle East and in the western
countries, to devote one Sunday to the Commemoration of this event in
2015, either around April 24 or on the traditional Day of the Golden
Rule (the 2nd Advent), or at any other moment according to each
community’s own wish and pace.
On behalf of the Executive Committee of the ACO Fellowship,
Rev. Thomas Wild, General Secretary
Evangelical Synod of Iran
Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East
Action Chrétienne en Orient, France
National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon
DM-échange et mission, Switzerland
GZB, Netherland
1 In 1995, ACO-France worked in the Middle East with the National
Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL), the Union of Armenian
Evangelical Churches in the Near East (UAECNE), and the Evangelical
Synod of Iran; in Europe, with the Dutch churches through the
missionary body called GZB, and with the French-speaking Swiss
churches through their missionary department, called DM-échange et
mission.