To deny Genocide means to consign to oblivion crime against humanity

PanARMENIAN.Net - The President of the Republic of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan issued an address on occasion of the 94th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the RA leader's press office reported.



The President said,



"Dear compatriots,



Today we bow to the memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by Ottoman Empire. A huge part of our nation was annihilated 94 years ago. Today, the Armenian Genocide is not only a fact of history for those who lived those days and for their ancestors, but it is inseparable part of our present.



Crimes against humanity do not have time limitation neither in the memories of the people nor for history trial. For the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide is a matter of reinstating historic justice.



Armenian people are not alone in their condemnation of the Genocide. At this time of remembrance, we express our heartfelt gratitude to the states, organizations and individuals who support us in our quest for condemnation and prevention of this crime against humanity. We support those Turkish intellectuals who struggle for historic justice, who share our pain. We have said numerous times that the process of recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not directed against the Turkish people and recognition of the Genocide by Turkey is not a precondition for the establishment of bilateral relations.



At the time the lessons of the Armenian Genocide were ignored. During the last decades sophisticated mechanisms against the Genocide denial and denunciation of the recognition process have been developed. To deny Genocide means to consign to oblivion this crime against humanity and to pave the way for new similar ferocious crimes. Today, when the world faces new instances of hatred, nationalism, and intolerance, a united and unanimous response of the human kind to the crimes against humanity becomes of crucial importance. As President of the Republic of Armenia, I wish no other nation ever goes through that tragedy again.



Every one of our innocent victims has a name, family and story. The committed crime has concrete culprits - those who planned it and those who executed. Many of those tragic stories have not been told yet. Even though a huge amount of work has been conducted, the world is yet to see abundant evidence testifying to the fact of the Armenian Genocide, testimonies, and documented facts.





Centuries-long Armenian history has many heroic pages, pages of losses and pages of creation. Today, when we are building our new statehood, when we shape new biography of our freedom we prove that we ourselves can be the guarantors of our security and eliminate any possibility of the repetition of similar crimes in the future.