Catholicos addresses letter to Syrian President after parliament’s passage of Armenian Genocide res.

17:25,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS. Catholicos Garegin II has sent a letter to President of Syria Bashar al-Assad on February 14 to express gratitude on behalf of the Armenian people on the occasion of the Syrian parliament’s unanimous passage of the resolution recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiatsin said in a news release.

“The condemnation and rejection of denial of crimes against humanity is the firm guarantee by which it is possible to prevent new genocides and crimes based on religious and national discrimination and to build a world of peace and solidarity”, the leader of the Armenian Church said, in part.

“The construction of the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in the desert of Deir ez-Zor during the presidency of your late father Hafez al-Assad was yet another record of the Syrian government’s adopted attitude in the Armenian Genocide issue,” the Catholicos said, praising the Syrian authorities’ “emphasized care and attention” for the Armenian people in Syria.

Garegin II, expressing support to the good people of Syria, offered wishes of peace and calm to the brotherly nation.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS