RA PRESIDENT: WE BECAME VICTIMS OF FIRST WORLD WAR THOUGH WE WERE NOT INITIATORS OF THAT WAR

PanARMENIAN.Net - We pay tribute to the memory of vanished victims as we commemorate the 90-th anniversary of the tragic events. We do it with double pain, since we are still bound to continue the struggle for the international recognition of the committed crime", Armenian President Robert Kocharian stated today at the opening ceremony of the Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge. Human Rights and Genocide International Conference. The statement of the Armenian leader says, "The First World War aimed at global re-distribution of the world and the big ideological controversy of the 20-th century that followed became the major obstacles to recognition of the legitimate rights of the Armenian people. We became victims of the First World War even though we were not the initiators of that war. And our right for the memory was sacrificed to the Cold War even though we were not its masterminds. When the planned policy of extermination of the Armenian nation was executed the term "genocide" did not exist. Now was it defined. There were no international structures that could serve as a floor for the discussions to give a united response to that crime of genocide. Obviously the world is changing. It took time for the world to treat genocides as crimes against humanity with all the relevant consequences. It took time to prevent the practice of sacrificing fundamental humanitarian values to the geopolitical interests of great powers and to include the moral considerations into foreign policy making of the civilized world. The avenue of that change was tragic for many peoples. For the Armenian people the price of that change equals one and a half million of human lives."