Canadian-Armenian Community to protest against Turkey-Armenia Protocols

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Canadian-Armenian communities of Montreal and Toronto will hold three protest rallies this Friday, Saturday and Sunday to express their frustration and opposition to the signing of "so-called" protocols that will guide the establishment and development of relations between Turkey and Armenia, which was jointly announced on August 31 2009 by the foreign ministers of Armenia, Turkey and Switzerland.



The public protest in Montreal will take place on Friday October 9, 2009 at 9 PM in front of the Armenian Genocide monument in Montreal (in the park on the corner of Avenue Henri-Bourassa and L'Acadie). In Toronto, the Armenian community will first organize a youth protest rally on Saturday October 10 2009 at 2 PM at Nathan Phillips Square-Winston Churchill Statue/Speakers Corner. There will also be a public gathering on Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 2 PM at the Armenian Youth Centre of Toronto (50 Hallcrown Place, Victoria Park Ave. and Highway Heroes). Armenians in Canada and around the world believe in reconciliation but they are opposing the protocols because they encourage the denialist ambitions of Turkey and abuse the vulnerability of the Armenian Government vis-à-vis its economic, social and geopolitical problems.



These protocols are especially adverse to the Armenian Nation's inalienable rights and interests. Turkey wants to hinder the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, by creating historical sub-commissions to examine the events of 1915. Numerous countries and organizations including the Canadian Parliament in April 2004 and the Canadian Government in 2006, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) in June 1997, June 2006 and October 2006, have recognized the Armenian Genocide.



The International Centre of Transitional Justice (ICTJ) that studied the Armenian case requested by a similar historical sub-commission, Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC), has already concluded that the events of 1915 constituted a Genocide.



Armenians also oppose other parts of the protocols which force Armenia to accept the current borders of Turkey, thus validating the dispossession of Western Armenia and waiving the right of the Armenian Nation to negotiate fully over Armenian Genocide reparations. They are also concerned that the protocols, which call for respecting and ensuring respect for the principles of non intervention in internal affairs of other states, territorial integrity and inviolability of frontiers, but do not mention the equally recognised international principle of self-determination, will jeopardize the self-determination of the people of Nagorno-Karabagh and negotiations for a peaceful settlement of that conflict.



The upcoming rallies in Montreal and Toronto are among a number of public protests being held in Canada, across the world, as well as in Armenia. Armenians around the world have organized protests against the new wave of Turkish denialism. In Canada hundreds of Armenian Youth gathered on Friday October 2 nd 2009 at the Armenian Community Centre in Toronto and protested against these unfair protocols. Petitions are being signed, and calls to redress the situation are also being communicated to the President of Armenia, during the consultations held this past week in cities across the world where large Armenian communities reside.