Heritage Party Youth Members’ Letter to President Obama

PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 – 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website:

21 April 2009

Yerevan–Approximately seventy young members and supporters of the Heritage
Party today held a public march in Yerevan. Despite the unsubstantiated
impediments by the police force–as, in accordance with the initial
arrangement, the number of the procession’s participants had not exceeded
one hundred and, therefore, there were no legal grounds for informing Town
Hall, due to the limited nature of the event–the event started from the
park adjacent to the statue of the renowned painter Martiros Sarian and its
final destination was the Embassy of the United States. Throughout the
march, the participants held in their hands the national flag of Armenia,
Heritage’s banners, and placards representing the state flags of the
twenty-one countries which formally have recognized the 1915-1923 Genocide
of the Armenians. Upon arrival at the US Embassy, the young marchers
delivered to Stephen Banks, Head of the Embassy’s Political/Economic
Section, their message addressed to the newly elected US President, Barack
Hussein Obama. In the message, the participants urge the President to
officially acknowledge not only the Genocide of the Armenian people, but
also the great dispossession of their homeland. The aforesaid message is
presented below.

Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the country. Its
central office is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan 0002, Armenia,
with telephone contact at (374-10) 536.913, fax at (374-10) 532.697, email
at [email protected] or [email protected], and website at

21 April 2009

President Barack Hussein Obama II
Washington DC, United States of America

Dear Mr. President:

We, the young members of the Heritage Party of Armenia, are extremely
enthusiastic over your recent election to the office of the President of the
United States of America. We are full of hope that your selection to this
post will bring a new impetus to the progress–including the protection of
human rights, the pacific resolution of conflicts, and the pre-eminence of
the precepts of liberty and justice–of the American people and the whole of
humanity. We were especially encouraged by your pre-election promise toward
formally acknowledging the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and, as President of
the United States and after a twenty-year interval, calling it like it is
once again. As a civilizational challenge and a permanent guarantee for
regional security and stability, we believe it is highly important for all
nations and countries to reflect on their history and to face it head-on, no
matter how bitter that may be.

We, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the small number of
genocide survivors from Mush, Sasun, Cilicia, Kars, Surmalu, Erzerum,
Malatia, Sebastia, Arabkir, Zeitun, Marash, and Butania–and the
representatives of a new generation–are patiently waiting for the day when,
in keeping with the letter and spirit of international law, we will be given
the chance to return to Western Armenia–our Motherland which was taken away
from us unlawfully and as a consequence of the Genocide–and to once more
own our estates: our lands and homes. We condemn any and all attempt by the
international bodies toward applying double standards for any regional
nation, circumnavigating international law, and solely considering who is
stronger or whose natural resources are greater.

Mr. President, we, the youth of Heritage, a national liberal party, urge you
to recognize not solely the Genocide of the Armenian people that was
perpetrated by the Turkish state from 1915 to 1922, but also the great
dispossession of their homeland. In result of this dispossession, an entire
nation lost nearly ninety percent of its historical motherland, those
territories where it had dwelled for millennia and created a rich
civilization and great cultural treasures. Yet we still have great hopes on
sound judgment and believe that the problematic issues existing among the
nations will be resolved in due course and on the basis of international law
and thus the legal heirs of the guilty will repent, ask forgiveness, and
make reparations through justice. Because injustice, as well as apathy by
the international bodies and powerful countries, can increase the temptation
to personally restore one’s own lost and disregarded rights and to use
asymmetric force against a powerful but a brute force. And this can make us
all face new challenges and can shake the foundations of security and
stability in the world entire.

We are confident that the Turks–with whom we expect to soon establish
normal relations anchored in real justice, historical truth, and
international law–need your sincere assistance on their thorny road to
amending their past and returning to the world’s family of nations with a
clean slate.

Respectfully,

1. Kirakossyan Meline
2. Sargsyan Ashkhen
3. Mheryan Artak
4. Tonoyan Hakob
5. Tonoyan Gohar
6. Tonoyan Astghik
7. Qocharyan Gagik
8. Sardaryan Aren
9. Poghosyan Narine
10. Nazlukhanyan Gohar
11. Markosyan David
12. Markosyan Armen
13. Gevorgyan Sirarpi
14. Grigoryan David
15. Hakobyan Lilit
16. Mirzakhanyan Samvel
17. Eranosyan Narek
18. Mnacakanyan Arsen
19. Hovhannisyan Anahit
20. Matevosyan Nana
21. Sargsyan Ani
22. Sanasaryan David
23. Isakhanyan Voskehat
24. Hakobyan Margarit
25. Matevosyan Meri
26. Ghazaryan Mariam
27. Ghazaryan Srbuhi

21 April 2009
Yerevan, Armenia

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

www.heritage.am
www.heritage.am

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS