EUROPEAN PEOPLE’S PARTY ADOPTS RESOLUTION CONDEMNING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
13:37, 03 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
The European People’s Party has just adopted a resolution on the
100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Armenian Minister of
Education and Science Armen Ashotyan said in a Facebook post. The
Resolution states:
The text of the document reads as follows:
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, TURKISH RESPONSIBILITY, AND EUROPEAN VALUES
The European People’s Party, pursuant to its own platform and
standards, reaffirms its recognition and condemnation of the Genocide
and Great National Dispossession of the Armenian people on the eve
of its 100th Anniversary on 24 April 2015.
The Armenian Genocide, which was perpetrated by the Young Turk
Government in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, is duly documented
by incontrovertible evidence housed in the official archives of
France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the United Kingdom, Canada, the
United States, and other nations around the world. It resulted not
only in the death and dispossession of more than two million human
beings but also in the decimation of the Armenian patrimony, its ways
of life, and its foundational contributions to Western culture and
world civilization. The Genocide also extended to the Pontic Greeks,
Assyrians, and Yezidi peoples.
Today, virtually no Armenians remain upon their ancestral homelands
currently incorporated in the Republic of Turkey, and since 1915
thousands of churches, monasteries, and other spiritual and secular
treasures of European architectural heritage have been completely
destroyed, damaged, or sent into disrepair to the extent of becoming
immediately subject to the threat of disappearance.
In spite of Turkey’s long-standing official denial of the Genocide,
a happy exception to the general rule has been the recent restoration
of the Armenian Church of the Holy Cross on the island of Aghtamar
in Lake Van. Hopefully, this trend will continue into the future,
but it must be recorded that the Turkish authorities have converted
the monastery into a museum, and but for one day per year it is closed
to prayer, worship, and religious ceremony.
Turkey is a member state of the Council of Europe subject to a full
undertaking of all commitments thereto and duties thereunder, and
has long sought ultimate accession to membership of the European Union.
Specifically, it is a signatory of the European Cultural Convention
and the Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage
of Europe. Despite being a party to these international treaties,
Turkey continues to fail to fulfill the obligations it has assumed
within their framework, in particular respect of the preservation of
Armenian cultural monuments which constitute an integral part of the
common European heritage.
Taking the foregoing into account, the European People’s Party invites
Turkey to take the following measures pursuant to its international
commitments and the European identity to which it aspires:
a) in the finest example of integrity and leadership proffered by
the Federal Republic of post-war Germany, to face history and finally
recognize the ever-present reality of the Armenian Genocide and its
attendant dispossession, to seek redemption and make restitution
appropriate for a European country, including but not limited to
ensuring a right of return of the Armenian people to, and a secure
reconnection with, their national hearth–all flowing from the
fundamental imperative of achieving Reconciliation through the Truth;
b) to provide a vision and an implementing plan of action worthy of a
truly European Turkey, including a comprehensive resolution of issues
relating to the freedom of expression and reference to the Genocide
in state, society and education; and to the freedom of conscience,
the unrestricted training of seminarians, and the repair of religious
and other cultural sites and their return to the Armenian and other
relevant communities;
c) to call on the Government of Turkey to respect and realize fully the
legal obligations which it has undertaken including those provisions
which relate to the protection of cultural heritage and, in particular,
to conduct in good faith an integrated inventory of Armenian and other
cultural heritage destroyed or ruined during the past century, based
thereon to develop a strategy of priority restoration of ancient and
medieval capital cities, churches, fortresses, cemeteries, and other
treasures located in historic Western Armenia, and to render the
aforementioned fully operational cultural and religious institutions;
d) and, finally, to launch the long-awaited celebration of the Armenian
national legacy based on a total Turkish-Armenian normalization
anchored in the assumption of history, the pacific resolution of
all outstanding matters, and a complete Europeanization of their
relationship.
The European People’s Party also invites the European Union and its
Commission, Council and Parliament, in assessment of the honoring of
commitments and obligations undertaken by Turkey, to accord continued
attention to the recognition, restoration, and restitution of our
shared heritage as tendered herewith.”
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/03/03/european-peoples-party-adopts-resolution-on-armenian-genocide-centennial/