KARABAKH PEOPLE’S REVOLT PREVENTED ANOTHER GENOCIDE OF ARMENIAN
POPULATION
Azg/arm
2 Feb 05
The speech of Artashes Geghamian, chairman of the National Unity
Party, delivered at the PACE sitting on January 27 dealt with the
report of Mats Einarsson (United Left).
Mr. President and dear colleagues,
It is very symbolic that the discussion of creating a European center
for commemoration of the victims of ethnic cleansing is going on in
current year, the year that the Armenians commemorate the 90th
anniversary of Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. The political and
intellectual elite of the Armenian nation, more than 600 people,
living in Constantinople was arrested on the night of April 24,
1915. That put the beginning to annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians
and their exodus throughout the world. That was the time when Bruno
Jasenski wrote one of the pages of his “Plot of the
Indifferent”. Europe kept silent. And that wasn’t an accident that
after a quarter of a century, in the August of 1939, Hitler stated in
his speech held for the commanders of his troops the following: “I
ordered my “Dead Heads” detachments to annihilate all the men, women
and children speaking Polish and having Polish origin. Only this will
help us conquer the vital territories we need. Who, after all, speaks
todayof the annihilation of the Armenians?” Later, the Jews shared the
tragic fate of the Polish people. Holocaust took place.
Ethnic cleanings were resumed in the late 80s and early 90s, when
hundreds, thousands of Armenians were massacred in Sumgait, Baku,
Kirovabad and Dashqes. Over 450 thousand of Armenians had to flee
from Soviet Azerbaijan. The Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh could
survive only after many people perishedas heroes in the war.
Unfortunately, two days ago, Mr. Mercan, our Turkish colleague, was
blaming in his speech the Karabakh people that they averted the danger
of being killed in the genocide. His draw to make parallels between
the Nagorno Karabakh issue and the cases of separatism in some of the
European countries are doomed to failure. These cases of separatism
are always strictly criticized by the majority of the population of
these very European countries.
In fact, Mr. Mercan called for the Belgians, the French, the English,
the Polish, the Russian and Italian to save themselves from
themselves. It is aluck that Canada isn’t represented in the CE,
otherwise the Turks would never forgive this country for the
opportunity it gave to the people of Quebec todecide their future fate
through a referendum. Mercan has preserved the traditionsof the
Byzantine notorious policy. It seems that the Ottomans have learned
some lessons after burning Constantinople and killing its residents in
1453. Let’s be just and say that they adopted not the best things from
the Byzantine civilization. We wonder why our Turkish colleague didn’t
mention the July events of 1974, when the Turkish troops invaded
Cyprus and occupied 40 percent of this independent state’s
territory. The 82 percent of Cyprus population are the Greeks. The
Armenians and the Maronits live there, too. He didn’t mention that
thousands of Cyprus Greeks were killed as a result of Turkey’s attack,
while over 200 thousand Christian residents of Cyprus had to leave
their homes and became refugees in their own country.
I came to remind the following verses from the Bible: “Why do you see
the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice log that is
in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own
eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your
brother’s eye”(Mathew, 7:3-4).
We should begin the establishment of the European center for the
victims of ethnic cleansings by restoring our own historic memory. In
“Mea Culpa” confession of 2000 Pope John Paul II asked forgiveness
from God and the Humanity for the activities the Catholic Church
carried out against the heretics and free-minded people, for the
intolerance, for the religious wars and the expeditions of the
crusaders, as well as the hostility and mistrust that many Christians
feel against the Jews.
I think that before establishing the European Center, the PACE should
make “Mea Culpa” statement-confession, as the political figures and
not the people are guilty for all the victims of ethnic cleansings in
Europe. While the people are waiting for the penance of the political
figures, of our penance.
By Artashes Geghamian, Strasburg, January 27, 2005