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"TO HELL WITH YOUR RATIFICATION": ARMENIA CONSIDERS RECALLING THE TURKEY PROTOCOLS
22:27 24.09.2014
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan participated in the 69th session
of the UN General Assembly, where he made a speech.
Distinguished President of the General Assembly, Distinguished
Secretary General, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mr. President,
We conduct this meeting in a symbolically significant period between
the centennial of World War I and the 70th anniversary of the end of
World War II, the two turning points in the history of humanity. The
United Nations Organization was established almost seventy years
ago at the end of World War II, and its mission was to form new
civilizational environment and culture of preventing the repetition
of the past tragic pages.
2015 bears particular significance for Armenians all over the world.
On April 24 Armenians around the globe will commemorate the most
tragic page of the nation's history - the centennial of the Armenian
Genocide. It was an unprecedented crime aimed at eliminating the
nation and depriving it of its homeland: a crime that continues to
be an unhealed scar for each Armenian. The 1915 Genocide was a crime
against civilization and humanity, and its inadequate condemnation
paved the way for similar crimes of mass murder in the future.
Addressing the Assembly ahead of that centennial year of the Armenian
Genocide from this prominent podium, which I would call the podium
of Honor and Responsibility, I declare vociferously:
Thank you Uruguay, France, and Russia!
Thank you Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden!
Thank you Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, and Cyprus!
Thank you Lebanon, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Canada, and Vatican!
Thank you for the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide
regardless of the format and language adopted. I thank the U.S.A.,
European Union, and all those personalities, state bodies, territorial
units and organizations in numerous countries, who publicly called
things by their proper names. That is indeed extremely important
since denial is a phase of the crime of genocide.
For a whole century now Armenians around the globe as well as
the entire progressive international community expects Turkey to
demonstrate the courage and face its own history by recognizing the
Armenian Genocide, thus relieving next generations of this heavy burden
of the past. Alas instead, we continue to hear ambiguous and ulterior
messages, in which the victim and the slaughterer are equalized,
and the history is falsified.
Armenia has never conditioned the normalization of the bilateral
relations with Turkey by recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In
fact, Armenia was the party that initiated such a process which
culminated in the signing of the Zurich Protocols in 2009. However,
those Protocols have been shelved for years now awaiting ratification
in the Turkish Parliament. Ankara declares publicly that it will
ratify those Protocols only if Armenians cede Nagorno- Karabakh,
the free Artsakh, to Azerbaijan. In Armenia and Artsakh ordinary
people often just retort to such preconditions: "To hell with
you ratification." This vernacular phrase concentrates the age-old
struggle of the entire nation, and it unequivocally explains to those
who attempt to bargain the others' homeland that the motherland is
sacrosanct, and they had better stay away from us with their bargain.
It is in these circumstances that currently the official Yerevan is
seriously considering the issue of recalling the Armenian-Turkish
Protocols from the parliament.
The tragic events in Syria and Iraq, which we are currently witnessing,
demonstrate how the groups whose creed is hatred are targeting
religious and national minorities. Two days ago, on Independence
Day of the Republic of Armenia, the Church of All Saint Martyrs in
Deir-ez-Zor, Syria, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the
Armenian Genocide, where their remains were housed, was mined and
blown up by terrorists. Such a barbarity is a criminal Godlessness
in no way or shape related to any faith. The catastrophic situation
in Syria and the north of Iraq continuously deteriorates, and today
hundreds of thousands of peaceful people are directly imperiled. Among
them are tens of thousands of Armenians of Aleppo. This is an instance
of a peril to consider in the context of our joint commitments to
preventing the crimes against humanity. Armenia has voiced on numerous
occasions the necessity to defend the Armenian population of Syria
and the Yezidi population of north-western Iraq, and we are encouraged
by the unified stance of the international community in this regard.
The very essence of our organization is the preservation of world peace
and security. In recent years, Armenia has consistently consolidated
its peacekeeping capabilities thus preparing ourselves for a more
proactive engagement in that field. Armenian peacekeepers will very
soon be dispatched to the south of Lebanon within the framework
of the UNIFIL mission under the auspices of the United Nations. It
became possible due to close collaboration we enjoy with our Italian
colleagues. I strongly believe that our servicemen will fulfill their
mission with dignity and high professionalism also utilizing the
extensive experience they have garnered in the last decade in Kosovo,
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Distinguished colleagues,
It has been more than twenty years our neighbor aborts the efforts
of the international community directed at the just and peaceful
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by its unconstructive
and maximalist stance. The failure of an adequate international
characterization of the bellicose declarations and various threats
put forth at the highest level in Azerbaijan has resulted in all-out
permissiveness. The President of Azerbaijan designates the entire
Armenian nation as the "the enemy number one", and what is considered
in the rest of the world to be a crime, is considered to be a glorious
deed in Azerbaijan.
Despite the fact that each conflict is unique, fundamental human rights
and freedoms, including the right of peoples to free expression of
will and self-determination, continue to evolve as a determinant to
their resolution. The vote held a few days ago in Scotland, once again
proved that nowadays the institute of referendum is more and more
widely perceived as a legal model for peaceful settlement of ethnic
conflicts. It was no coincidence that the right to govern one's own
fate through referendum is in the core of the proposal put forward
by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group for the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Ladies and gentlemen,
While discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement I cannot but
address the four UN Security Council resolutions, which were adopted
during the war, that every so often are exploited by Azerbaijani
authorities in order to justify their obstructive policy.
It is about those four Resolutions that demanded unconditionally as a
matter of priority cessation of all military hostilities. Azerbaijan
failed to comply. Azerbaijan's own non-compliance with the
fundamental demands of these Resolutions made their full implementation
impossible. The Resolutions contained calls upon the parties to cease
bombardments and air strikes targeting peaceful civilian populations,
to refrain from violating the principles of international humanitarian
law but instead Azerbaijan continued its indiscriminate bombardments
of civilian populations. Azerbaijan did not spare children, women
and old men thus gravely violating all legal and moral norms of
international humanitarian law.
Now Azerbaijan cynically refers to these Resolutions - refers
selectively, pulling them out of context as a prerequisite for
the settlement of the problem. The adequate interpretation of the
UN Security Council Resolutions is not possible without correctly
understanding the hierarchy of the demands set therein.
The Resolutions inter alia request the restoration of economic,
transport and energy links in the region (UN SC Resolution 853) and
removal of all obstacles to communications and transportation (UN SC
Resolution 874). It is no secret that Azerbaijan and Turkey imposed
blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh and the Republic of Armenia from the
outset of the conflict. The Azerbaijani President in his statements
even takes pride in this fact promising his own public that direction
would remain the priority of Azerbaijan's foreign policy.
The abovementioned UN Security Council Resolutions called upon
Azerbaijan to establish direct contacts with Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan refused to establish any direct contact with
Nagorno-Karabakh, which was a legally equal party to the Ceasefire
Agreement concluded in 1994, as well as to a number of other
international agreements. Moreover, Azerbaijan preaches hatred towards
people it claims it wants to see as a part of their state.
None of the UN SC Resolutions identifies Armenia as a conflicting
party. Our country is only called upon "to continue to exert its
influence" over the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians (UN SC Resolutions 853,
884) in order to cease the conflict. Armenia fully complied, and partly
owing to its efforts a ceasefire agreement was concluded in 1994. All
the UN SC Resolutions have clearly recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as a
party to the conflict.
Azerbaijani authorities have failed to implement the fundamental
demands of the Security Council resolutions, including abiding and
sticking by humanitarian norms. Incidentally, Azerbaijan has been
gravely violating this demand every now and then. Azerbaijan's cruel
and inhumane treatment of the Armenian civilian prisoners of war
regularly resulted in their deaths. Although, I think, one shall not
be surprised about it because it is the same state that suppresses
and exercises the most inhumane treatment of its own people. A clear
proof of it was the decision of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of
Torture to suspend its visit to Azerbaijan due to the obstructions
it encountered in the conduct of the official Baku.
The Co-Chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group is the only specialized
structure that has been dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh issue
according to the mandate granted by the international community. While
Azerbaijan is very well aware that it could not possibly deceive or
misinform the Minsk Group, which is very-well immersed in the essence
of the problem, it attempts to transpose the conflict settlement
to other platforms trying to depict it as a territorial dispute or
exploiting the factor of religious solidarity. That is ironic, since
Armenia traditionally enjoys very warm relations with the Islamic
states both in the Arab world or, for instance, with our immediate
neighbor Iran.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We highly value the indispensable role of the United Nations in the
adjustment and implementation of the development goals. I strongly
believe that through the new "Post-2015" development agenda we will
continue our efforts at seeking solutions and responding to challenges
of global nature stemming from the Millennium Development Goals.
In conclusion, I would like to underline that we have passed the
substantial part of the road leading to shaping the "Post-2015
Development Agenda" and we will continue our endeavors in this regard
by displaying necessary flexibility in order to bring this process
to its logical conclusion.
I thank you.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/09/24/to-hell-with-your-ratification-armenia-considers-recalling-the-turkey-protocols/
22:27 24.09.2014
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan participated in the 69th session
of the UN General Assembly, where he made a speech.
Distinguished President of the General Assembly, Distinguished
Secretary General, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mr. President,
We conduct this meeting in a symbolically significant period between
the centennial of World War I and the 70th anniversary of the end of
World War II, the two turning points in the history of humanity. The
United Nations Organization was established almost seventy years
ago at the end of World War II, and its mission was to form new
civilizational environment and culture of preventing the repetition
of the past tragic pages.
2015 bears particular significance for Armenians all over the world.
On April 24 Armenians around the globe will commemorate the most
tragic page of the nation's history - the centennial of the Armenian
Genocide. It was an unprecedented crime aimed at eliminating the
nation and depriving it of its homeland: a crime that continues to
be an unhealed scar for each Armenian. The 1915 Genocide was a crime
against civilization and humanity, and its inadequate condemnation
paved the way for similar crimes of mass murder in the future.
Addressing the Assembly ahead of that centennial year of the Armenian
Genocide from this prominent podium, which I would call the podium
of Honor and Responsibility, I declare vociferously:
Thank you Uruguay, France, and Russia!
Thank you Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden!
Thank you Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, and Cyprus!
Thank you Lebanon, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Canada, and Vatican!
Thank you for the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide
regardless of the format and language adopted. I thank the U.S.A.,
European Union, and all those personalities, state bodies, territorial
units and organizations in numerous countries, who publicly called
things by their proper names. That is indeed extremely important
since denial is a phase of the crime of genocide.
For a whole century now Armenians around the globe as well as
the entire progressive international community expects Turkey to
demonstrate the courage and face its own history by recognizing the
Armenian Genocide, thus relieving next generations of this heavy burden
of the past. Alas instead, we continue to hear ambiguous and ulterior
messages, in which the victim and the slaughterer are equalized,
and the history is falsified.
Armenia has never conditioned the normalization of the bilateral
relations with Turkey by recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In
fact, Armenia was the party that initiated such a process which
culminated in the signing of the Zurich Protocols in 2009. However,
those Protocols have been shelved for years now awaiting ratification
in the Turkish Parliament. Ankara declares publicly that it will
ratify those Protocols only if Armenians cede Nagorno- Karabakh,
the free Artsakh, to Azerbaijan. In Armenia and Artsakh ordinary
people often just retort to such preconditions: "To hell with
you ratification." This vernacular phrase concentrates the age-old
struggle of the entire nation, and it unequivocally explains to those
who attempt to bargain the others' homeland that the motherland is
sacrosanct, and they had better stay away from us with their bargain.
It is in these circumstances that currently the official Yerevan is
seriously considering the issue of recalling the Armenian-Turkish
Protocols from the parliament.
The tragic events in Syria and Iraq, which we are currently witnessing,
demonstrate how the groups whose creed is hatred are targeting
religious and national minorities. Two days ago, on Independence
Day of the Republic of Armenia, the Church of All Saint Martyrs in
Deir-ez-Zor, Syria, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the
Armenian Genocide, where their remains were housed, was mined and
blown up by terrorists. Such a barbarity is a criminal Godlessness
in no way or shape related to any faith. The catastrophic situation
in Syria and the north of Iraq continuously deteriorates, and today
hundreds of thousands of peaceful people are directly imperiled. Among
them are tens of thousands of Armenians of Aleppo. This is an instance
of a peril to consider in the context of our joint commitments to
preventing the crimes against humanity. Armenia has voiced on numerous
occasions the necessity to defend the Armenian population of Syria
and the Yezidi population of north-western Iraq, and we are encouraged
by the unified stance of the international community in this regard.
The very essence of our organization is the preservation of world peace
and security. In recent years, Armenia has consistently consolidated
its peacekeeping capabilities thus preparing ourselves for a more
proactive engagement in that field. Armenian peacekeepers will very
soon be dispatched to the south of Lebanon within the framework
of the UNIFIL mission under the auspices of the United Nations. It
became possible due to close collaboration we enjoy with our Italian
colleagues. I strongly believe that our servicemen will fulfill their
mission with dignity and high professionalism also utilizing the
extensive experience they have garnered in the last decade in Kosovo,
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Distinguished colleagues,
It has been more than twenty years our neighbor aborts the efforts
of the international community directed at the just and peaceful
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by its unconstructive
and maximalist stance. The failure of an adequate international
characterization of the bellicose declarations and various threats
put forth at the highest level in Azerbaijan has resulted in all-out
permissiveness. The President of Azerbaijan designates the entire
Armenian nation as the "the enemy number one", and what is considered
in the rest of the world to be a crime, is considered to be a glorious
deed in Azerbaijan.
Despite the fact that each conflict is unique, fundamental human rights
and freedoms, including the right of peoples to free expression of
will and self-determination, continue to evolve as a determinant to
their resolution. The vote held a few days ago in Scotland, once again
proved that nowadays the institute of referendum is more and more
widely perceived as a legal model for peaceful settlement of ethnic
conflicts. It was no coincidence that the right to govern one's own
fate through referendum is in the core of the proposal put forward
by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group for the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Ladies and gentlemen,
While discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement I cannot but
address the four UN Security Council resolutions, which were adopted
during the war, that every so often are exploited by Azerbaijani
authorities in order to justify their obstructive policy.
It is about those four Resolutions that demanded unconditionally as a
matter of priority cessation of all military hostilities. Azerbaijan
failed to comply. Azerbaijan's own non-compliance with the
fundamental demands of these Resolutions made their full implementation
impossible. The Resolutions contained calls upon the parties to cease
bombardments and air strikes targeting peaceful civilian populations,
to refrain from violating the principles of international humanitarian
law but instead Azerbaijan continued its indiscriminate bombardments
of civilian populations. Azerbaijan did not spare children, women
and old men thus gravely violating all legal and moral norms of
international humanitarian law.
Now Azerbaijan cynically refers to these Resolutions - refers
selectively, pulling them out of context as a prerequisite for
the settlement of the problem. The adequate interpretation of the
UN Security Council Resolutions is not possible without correctly
understanding the hierarchy of the demands set therein.
The Resolutions inter alia request the restoration of economic,
transport and energy links in the region (UN SC Resolution 853) and
removal of all obstacles to communications and transportation (UN SC
Resolution 874). It is no secret that Azerbaijan and Turkey imposed
blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh and the Republic of Armenia from the
outset of the conflict. The Azerbaijani President in his statements
even takes pride in this fact promising his own public that direction
would remain the priority of Azerbaijan's foreign policy.
The abovementioned UN Security Council Resolutions called upon
Azerbaijan to establish direct contacts with Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan refused to establish any direct contact with
Nagorno-Karabakh, which was a legally equal party to the Ceasefire
Agreement concluded in 1994, as well as to a number of other
international agreements. Moreover, Azerbaijan preaches hatred towards
people it claims it wants to see as a part of their state.
None of the UN SC Resolutions identifies Armenia as a conflicting
party. Our country is only called upon "to continue to exert its
influence" over the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians (UN SC Resolutions 853,
884) in order to cease the conflict. Armenia fully complied, and partly
owing to its efforts a ceasefire agreement was concluded in 1994. All
the UN SC Resolutions have clearly recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as a
party to the conflict.
Azerbaijani authorities have failed to implement the fundamental
demands of the Security Council resolutions, including abiding and
sticking by humanitarian norms. Incidentally, Azerbaijan has been
gravely violating this demand every now and then. Azerbaijan's cruel
and inhumane treatment of the Armenian civilian prisoners of war
regularly resulted in their deaths. Although, I think, one shall not
be surprised about it because it is the same state that suppresses
and exercises the most inhumane treatment of its own people. A clear
proof of it was the decision of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of
Torture to suspend its visit to Azerbaijan due to the obstructions
it encountered in the conduct of the official Baku.
The Co-Chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group is the only specialized
structure that has been dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh issue
according to the mandate granted by the international community. While
Azerbaijan is very well aware that it could not possibly deceive or
misinform the Minsk Group, which is very-well immersed in the essence
of the problem, it attempts to transpose the conflict settlement
to other platforms trying to depict it as a territorial dispute or
exploiting the factor of religious solidarity. That is ironic, since
Armenia traditionally enjoys very warm relations with the Islamic
states both in the Arab world or, for instance, with our immediate
neighbor Iran.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We highly value the indispensable role of the United Nations in the
adjustment and implementation of the development goals. I strongly
believe that through the new "Post-2015" development agenda we will
continue our efforts at seeking solutions and responding to challenges
of global nature stemming from the Millennium Development Goals.
In conclusion, I would like to underline that we have passed the
substantial part of the road leading to shaping the "Post-2015
Development Agenda" and we will continue our endeavors in this regard
by displaying necessary flexibility in order to bring this process
to its logical conclusion.
I thank you.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/09/24/to-hell-with-your-ratification-armenia-considers-recalling-the-turkey-protocols/