ArmInfo. The Armenian people and statehood are once again facing severe trials and challenges. This was stated by the President of the Union of Armenians of Russia (UAR) Ara Abrahamyan at the conference "Genocide. Memory and Prevention. Modern Challenges" in Moscow the day before.
"It seems that today we are once again experiencing the events of a hundred years ago. At the beginning of the last century, taking advantage of the situation of the First World War, the short-sightedness of the Armenian elites and their inability to unite, the Young Turk leaders planned and carried out the most brutal crime - the Genocide of the Armenian people, their expulsion from their lands. The authorities of modern Turkey, inspired by new geopolitical realities in the world and the region, not only continue the policy of denying the Armenian Genocide and falsifying history, but also participate in the implementation of new crimes - in Artsakh, in Syria. The most monstrous thing is that the Armenian authorities today have gone further than Turkey. They question the very fact of the Genocide, which is a violation of the country's Constitution, and then propose to recount the killed Armenians (we saw during the 44-day war how they treat human lives and how they can count). A year ago, we were outraged that the Prime Minister of Armenia avoided calling the Genocide genocide in his speech, trying to use the word "Ekhern", a massacre, that the mandatory point for official foreign delegations to visit the Tsitsernakaberd memorial suddenly disappears from the state protocol, that the deputies from the ruling party cynically call for counting the names of the victims of the genocide, instead of presenting to the public a list of the victims of the current war, provoked and ineptly lost by the current government. They also call for "studying the archives to understand what happened in 1915"! What archives? The archives that are periodically cleaned out in Turkey? The head of state himself, speaking to the diaspora in Switzerland, is already cynically questioning the fact of the genocide. Thereby violating both the laws of Switzerland and Armenia," said Ara Abrahamyan.
He believes that, following the example of Switzerland and other countries, it is time for Armenia itself to adopt a law on criminal punishment for the denial of the Armenian Genocide, as well as for the moral and informational genocide of the Armenian people. "Today, the archives of the Genocide Museum in Yerevan are already under threat. Who guarantees their safety? The government that has been methodically destroying all the traditional foundations of our people since 2018? The government that, in violation of the Constitution of Armenia, is busy redrawing borders - without relying on international treaties, absolutely without guarantees and without regard for the consequences of such actions? It surrendered Artsakh, proposes to forget the Genocide and abandon the demands. Everything that unites us - Artsakh, the memory of the Genocide, the Church - everything is being attacked and destroyed! Nowadays, we are faced with attempts to falsify history everywhere. In the West, they are trying to rewrite the history of Russia, and Azerbaijan is doing the same with regard to Armenia. Baku is destroying ancient temples in Artsakh, monuments that testify to the heroism of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War, doing everything to desecrate our history. Not to mention the shameful trial that was held in Baku over the captured Armenians, over the leadership of Artsakh. All this is a consequence of the incompetent policy of the Armenian authorities," the head of the SAR emphasized.
He also noted that the Union of Armenians of Russia, being a public organization, has been systematically working on the recognition and elimination of the consequences of the Armenian Genocide since its foundation for a quarter of a century. "The Institute of International Law at the Union of Armenians of Russia, which I once invited a major Russian scholar, professor of international law Yuri Barsegov to head, conducted a fundamental study and published a unique collection "The Armenian Genocide. Responsibility of Turkey and Obligations of the World Community. Documents and Comments" in three volumes. The State Duma of the Russian Federation twice - in 1995 and in 2005, by its decision condemned the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. And Russian President Vladimir Putin personally attended the events in Tsitsernakaberd on the centenary of the Genocide. The address of the President of the Russian Federation to the participants of the memorial evening in the Column Hall, organized by the Union of Armenians of Russia on April 22, 2015, also had a great resonance. The Armenian Church, as is known, canonized the victims of the Genocide. But this does not mean that they are now in the past, in history. They live in the life of every Armenian - with their deep faith, invincible spirit and unfulfilled dreams. We must bring them to life. We have no right to betray their memory and should not allow anyone to rewrite our history and erase it. Everyone, first of all, representatives of the Armenian elite, must finally realize this. April 24 is another reason to realize what is happening and unite! There is no other way. You, the Armenian authorities, together with the Turks, want to consign our history and the memory of our ancestors to oblivion. We will not allow you to do this! And we will continue to fight for the civilized world community to recognize and condemn the Genocide committed 110 years ago," Ara Abrahamyan emphasized.