SYRIA VOICES CONDEMNATION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, LIKENS IT TO TERRORIST CRIMES NOWADAYS
23 AprilØ~L 2015
Yerevan, SANA – Syria expressed Thursday at a global forum its
condemnation of the genocide which the Ottoman Turks committed against
the Armenian people in 1915.
The global forum “Against the Crime of Genocide” was held in the
Armenian capital Yerevan commemorating the Centennial of the well-known
genocide, which is marked on April 24 every year.
Delivering Syria’s speech, Speaker of the People’s Assembly Mohammad
Jihad al-Laham said history will not forgive those “who didn’t learn
the lessons of wars on other peoples.”
The current Turkish government, the successor of the Ottomans, has
thrust itself so deeply in the current crisis in Syria, opening its
land wide to terrorists coming from all corners of the world to cross
border into Syria and commit horrible crimes against its people.
“Any crime against humans must be condemned and rejected whoever the
perpetrator, and how if that crime was a genocide in which more than
a million and a half of the brotherly Armenian people were killed,”
al-Laham told the forum.
“We in Syria have always felt the Armenians’ sense of belonging is as
much to Syria as it is to Armenian and vice versa,” he said, affirming
that the Armenians in Syria are an integral part of its people.
Al-Laham drew parallels between the Armenian Genocide and the mass
crimes targeting the people in Syria and Iraq, saying the crimes
systematically committed by the terrorists in both countries target
all of the two peoples’ components and are aimed at cleansing areas
of their inhabitants.
These, and the deliberate damaging of the cultural heritage and the
archeological and historical sites in Syria and Iraq, all constitute
“a genocide against humanity” and crimes against the history and
culture, he added.
While stressing that the history of appalling criminality is repeating
itself now through the terrorists of today, al-Laham said this would
not have happened was it not for those states and sides that are
supplying the terrorists with whatever funds, arms, training and
political and media cover they need to commit crimes.
Armenian Premier: We support Syria in confronting terrorism, seek
more economic cooperation
Later, Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan said his country
supports Syria in its fight against the terrorism exported to it from
different countries.
During his meeting with Speaker al-Laham Abrahamyan stressed that the
historical relations between Syria and Armenia are firmly established.
He saw that the Syrian participation in the forum, which marks the
Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, committed by the Ottomans in 1915,
reflects how much deep is the friendship relations binding the people
of Syria and Armenia.
Out of Armenia’s interest in further activating the parliamentary,
political and economic relations with Syria, Abrahamyan used the
opportunity of his meeting with al-Laham to extend an invitation to
the Syrian Prime Minister to visit Armenia with a view of expanding
the areas of economic cooperation between the two countries.
Al-Laham renewed Damascus’s solidarity with Yerevan on the occasion,
calling for joint work on the international level to prevent such
crimes from being repeated through eliminating the terrorism ravaging
Syria and Iraq.
Qabas/Haifa Said
From: A. Papazian