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Heritage Party Resolution On Armenian Genocide Postponed At EPP Asse

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  • Heritage Party Resolution On Armenian Genocide Postponed At EPP Asse

    HERITAGE PARTY RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE POSTPONED AT EPP ASSEMBLY

    17:50, 23 Jan 2015
    Siranush Ghazanchyan

    An official resolution drafted and presented by Raffi K. Hovannisian,
    the founder and chairman of the Heritage Party, to the Political
    Assembly of the European People's Party held in the Belgian capital
    on January 22-23 was postponed until its next meeting in March.

    Hovannisian said he would provide details of the proposal and decision
    currently not to consider or vote on the resolution, entitled "The
    Armenian Genocide, Turkish Responsibility, and European Values,"
    upon his return to Yerevan.

    The text of the document reads as follows:

    THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, TURKISH RESPONSIBILITY, AND EUROPEAN VALUES

    The European People's Party, pursuant to its own platform and
    standards, reaffirms its recognition and condemnation of the Genocide
    and Great National Dispossession of the Armenian people on the eve
    of its 100th Anniversary on 24 April 2015.

    The Armenian Genocide, which was perpetrated by the Young Turk
    Government in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, is duly documented
    by incontrovertible evidence housed in the official archives of
    France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the United Kingdom, Canada, the
    United States, and other nations around the world. It resulted not
    only in the death and dispossession of more than two million human
    beings but also in the decimation of the Armenian patrimony, its ways
    of life, and its foundational contributions to Western culture and
    world civilization. The Genocide also extended to the Pontic Greeks,
    Assyrians, and Yezidi peoples.

    Today, virtually no Armenians remain upon their ancestral homelands
    currently incorporated in the Republic of Turkey, and since 1915
    thousands of churches, monasteries, and other spiritual and secular
    treasures of European architectural heritage have been completely
    destroyed, damaged, or sent into disrepair to the extent of becoming
    immediately subject to the threat of disappearance.

    In spite of Turkey's long-standing official denial of the Genocide,
    a happy exception to the general rule has been the recent restoration
    of the Armenian Church of the Holy Cross on the island of Aghtamar
    in Lake Van. Hopefully, this trend will continue into the future,
    but it must be recorded that the Turkish authorities have converted
    the monastery into a museum, and but for one day per year it is closed
    to prayer, worship, and religious ceremony.

    Turkey is a member state of the Council of Europe subject to a full
    undertaking of all commitments thereto and duties thereunder, and
    has long sought ultimate accession to membership of the European Union.

    Specifically, it is a signatory of the European Cultural Convention
    and the Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage
    of Europe. Despite being a party to these international treaties,
    Turkey continues to fail to fulfill the obligations it has assumed
    within their framework, in particular respect of the preservation of
    Armenian cultural monuments which constitute an integral part of the
    common European heritage.

    Taking the foregoing into account, the European People's Party invites
    Turkey to take the following measures pursuant to its international
    commitments and the European identity to which it aspires:

    a) in the finest example of integrity and leadership proffered by
    the Federal Republic of post-war Germany, to face history and finally
    recognize the ever-present reality of the Armenian Genocide and its
    attendant dispossession, to seek redemption and make restitution
    appropriate for a European country, including but not limited to
    ensuring a right of return of the Armenian people to, and a secure
    reconnection with, their national hearth--all flowing from the
    fundamental imperative of achieving Reconciliation through the Truth;

    b) to provide a vision and an implementing plan of action worthy of a
    truly European Turkey, including a comprehensive resolution of issues
    relating to the freedom of expression and reference to the Genocide
    in state, society and education; and to the freedom of conscience,
    the unrestricted training of seminarians, and the repair of religious
    and other cultural sites and their return to the Armenian and other
    relevant communities;

    c) to call on the Government of Turkey to respect and realize fully the
    legal obligations which it has undertaken including those provisions
    which relate to the protection of cultural heritage and, in particular,
    to conduct in good faith an integrated inventory of Armenian and other
    cultural heritage destroyed or ruined during the past century, based
    thereon to develop a strategy of priority restoration of ancient and
    medieval capital cities, churches, fortresses, cemeteries, and other
    treasures located in historic Western Armenia, and to render the
    aforementioned fully operational cultural and religious institutions;

    d) and, finally, to launch the long-awaited celebration of the Armenian
    national legacy based on a total Turkish-Armenian normalization
    anchored in the assumption of history, the pacific resolution of
    all outstanding matters, and a complete Europeanization of their
    relationship.

    The European People's Party also invites the European Union and its
    Commission, Council and Parliament, in assessment of the honoring of
    commitments and obligations undertaken by Turkey, to accord continued
    attention to the recognition, restoration, and restitution of our
    shared heritage as tendered herewith."

    http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/01/23/heritage-party-resolution-on-armenian-genocide-postponed-at-epp-assembly/


    From: Baghdasarian
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