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  • Sarkisian Says Yerevan Considering Recall Of Turkey-Armenia Protocol

    SARKISIAN SAYS YEREVAN CONSIDERING RECALL OF TURKEY-ARMENIA PROTOCOLS

    Wednesday, September 24th, 2014
    http://asbarez.com/127263/sarkisian-says-yerevan-considering-recall-of-turkey-armenia-protocols/

    President Serzh Sarkisian addresses the UN General Assembly Wednesday

    UNITED NATIONS--Speaking at the UN General Assembly Wednesday,
    President Serzh Sarkisian hinted that official Yerevan is considering
    the recall of the Turkey-Armenia Protocols since Turkey continues
    to insist on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict in favor of
    Azerbaijan as a precondition for ratifying the documents.

    "Ankara declares publicly that it will ratify those Protocols only if
    Armenians cede Nagorno-Karabakh--Independent Artsakh-to Azerbaijan. In
    Armenia and Artsakh ordinary people often just retort to such
    preconditions: 'To hell with your ratification,'" said Sarkisian.

    "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."

    In his remarks, Sarkisian also addressed the international crisis
    posed by ISIS, and remarked that on Armenia's Independence Day,
    ISIS forces destroyed the St. Mary's Armenian Church in Der Zor,
    which served as a memorial to the 1.5 victims of the Armenian Genocide.

    He also chastised the international community for allowing Azerbaijan
    to advance its anti-Armenian and war rhetoric.

    "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,"
    said Sarkisian.

    Below is the complete text of Sarkisian's statement at the UN.

    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
    your 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.

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