Monday, 24 April 2006
RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan's Message on Genocide Victims Remembrance Day
Dear Compatriots,
Each year on April 24, Armenians in Homeland and Diaspora bend their heads before the memory of several thousands of our victims who fell a prey to Genocide perpetrators. Organized and committed at a State level by the Ottoman Turkey in 1915, not only did this crime, which was actually directed against the whole civilized mankind, fail to be prevented, but it escaped official recognition and condemnation facilitating in this way the recurrence of new genocides.
In a world which has crossed the threshold of the third millennium, Armenia makes a priority of the manifestation of political will for genocide prevention on the part of the international community and joins numerous States' drive to oppose a united front to challenges of this kind facing humanity. It is to be welcomed that the geographical coverage of Genocide recognition is expanding every year as the civilized world becomes cognizant of the fact that such evil deeds will be impossible to prevent from recurring in future unless the genocide of Armenians is condemned and historical events are assessed at their true value. Not only do Turkey's ongoing attempts to deny the Genocide, misrepresent facts, forget past realities and stifle those few Turkish scholars who are trying to condemn the Genocide through disclosure of shameful chapters of history put at risk the stability in the region and the establishment of good-neighborly relationships, but they also promote an atmosphere of impunity susceptible to give rise to further such crimes in future.
Last year Armenians all over the world marked the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and stated once again that they had come together to make a common cause of condemning the greatest tragedy of our history and join the progressive mankind's efforts for the promotion of civilizations dialog and strengthening of international security system. This year, as we are celebrating the 15th anniversary of our independence, it is more than obvious for us that the international efforts are not sufficient to deal with the crime committed against our nation, and there is a need in consolidating the potential of the whole nation for the strengthening of the Armenian statehood and building a prosperous society based on democratic values. For the past one and a half decade, we have been making efforts towards this end and the achievements recorded make themselves felt year after year.
