ENCYCLICAL OF CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS ON THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF ADANA MASSACRES
armradio.am
16.04.2009 17:42
His Holiness Garegin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians, issued an encyclical on the 100th Anniversary of Adana
Massacres, Information Service of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
reported.
"We convey our Pontifical love and blessings from the Altar of Light
– the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, to all our people in Armenia,
Artsakh and the Diaspora.
This year we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the massacres of
Armenians in Adana and various settlements of Cilician Armenia,
remembering our countless martyrs, and recalling the grave and
catastrophic period of our history at the beginning of the last
century. We commemorate the immortal memory of our forefathers, who in
ferocious times of massacres and genocide, rose to heroic struggle,
who "by their faith they displayed their courage, and were praised
by men and justified by God." Yeghishe.
The Cilician massacres were the continuation of the plans of Sultan
Abdul Hamid II to "eliminate" the Armenian question by annihilating
the Armenian population. In the 1890s, approximately 300,000 Armenians
were murdered in Ottoman Turkey through bloody pogroms. The Young
Turks, having ascended to power in Turkey, and who had guaranteed
the equality of ethnic groups, the defense of human rights, and t
he security of the individual and of property, greater intensified
persecutions against the Armenian people living on their historical
homeland and throughout other regions of Turkey. In April 1909, new
pogroms were initiated in Adana, where 30,000 additional Armenians
were murdered. To defend their right to life and liberty, Armenians
relied on self-defense and took up arms, with faith and reliance on
God in their souls, and love for their homeland and the Mother Church
in their hearts.
The courageous Armenians of Adana, the valiant men of Zeitun, Van,
Moush, Musa Ler, and Armenians living in various regions of historic
Armenia, struggled to defend their right to life, liberty, justice
and peace with a triumphant faith and a spirit of bravery. It is with
this same faith and strong will that the brave sons and daughters of
our nation have battled in the freedom-struggles of May 1918, on the
battlefields of World War II, and the heroic war for the liberation
of Artsakh.
More than nine decades have passed since the Genocide of the Armenians.
However, our tragedy-stricken people, who lost more than one and
one-half million souls in the genocide planned and executed by
the Turkish authorities, never ceased to hope for the universal
condemnation of the crimes committed against our forebears. And they
continue to always raise their voice of protest in the name of justice
for the entire world to hear, so that similar c alamities never again
darken human life.
The Armenian Genocide opened a bloody and dark page of unheard of
tragedy not only for our people, but in the history of all nations. The
delay in the condemnation of the Genocide of the Armenians encouraged
similar crimes to take place yet again, and the world witnessed new
genocides. In human life today, policies of ethnic persecution and
fanatic nationalism cause serious concern, and demand the unified,
universal and immediate condemnation by international society. The
expression of the will and desire to eliminate ethnic discrimination,
trampling of national rights, violence, inter-ethnic intolerance,
and offenses committed against a people, shall be the universal
recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian
people, with this hope and faith, but with the unhealed pain of
genocide and the righteous demand for resolution to the "Armenian
Cause" in their hearts, are building a new life in their free and
independent homeland and throughout the world.
Dear faithful sons and daughters, as we commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian massacres in Adana and Cilicia, we once
again call for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide for the sake
of a world free of violence, at peace and in prosperity. Through the
blessings and assistance of Almighty God, and the unceasing efforts
of our people, the new dawn of justice shall open in our lives, and
th e righteous verdict will be granted to our Armenian nation. Let us
remain steadfast in our faith, in our love of God, our love for one
another and in our just cause. Let us remain steadfast in our will and
desire to vigilantly protect our native memories and national legacy,
and let us always live with love for our Lord Jesus Christ, our Holy
Church and our homeland. Let us pray to God Almighty for the unified
efforts of our people to be bountiful and produce fruitful results
in our national-ecclesiastical spheres, for the love of our homeland
and Armenian life dispersed throughout the world, our bright future
and the manifestation of all national aspirations.
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus
Christ." Romans 1:7"