On the eve of the 111th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, we witnessed the complete—and planned—destruction by Azerbaijan of the Holy Mother of God Cathedral in the heart of occupied Stepanakert.

Azerbaijan has been employing the same barbaric tactics that the Turks used more than a century ago to annihilate the Armenian race. It started with the Soviet-era pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait, Kirovabad, Baku, Maragha, Shahumian and other areas. The 2020 Artsakh War showed that Azerbaijan would stop at nothing to destroy Artsakh and its population. This was followed by the complete blockade imposed on Artsakh, which ultimately led to the forced displacement of all of Artsakh’s Armenian population.

These acts of violence—born from a state policy of deep-rooted intolerance and hatred toward Armenians—occurred as the international community sat idly by, only issuing statements of “deep concern” and tacit condemnation, essentially empowering Azerbaijan to act with impunity to carry out its objectives.

Today, the same world powers are talking about peace without addressing the consequences of the past injustices that have gone unrecognized and unpunished.

What is more egregious, however, is the Armenian government’s posturing in the face of these realities. So convinced that they can usher in a new era of peace for Armenia that the administration of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has begun a dangerous campaign of denial to appease those who allegedly are seeking peace, when in reality all they are doing is advancing further economic opportunities to enrich themselves.

For Pashinyan to begin using the word “Medz Yeghern” (Great Calamity) to describe the events of 1915, and even hinting that the history and causes of the Armenian Genocide should be examined, has damaged the almost century of activism and advocacy that has led to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a first step toward the cause to get justice for the victims.

For Pashinyan to state that the Karabakh Liberation Movement, which not only saw the historic reclaiming of Artsakh, but in many ways hastened Armenia’s independence in 1991, cannot continue as it is fomenting war, means that those leading Armenia have all but given up on the concepts of self-determination, justice and human rights.

The Armenian government believes that by ignoring history they are wiping the slate clean with the promise of a better Armenia with a brighter future and unburdened by the injustices of history. Pashinyan believes that by not dwelling in the past it is taking away the reality—the fact—that Armenians have been victims to such unspeakable atrocities over the course of modern history.

So, when the prime minister of Armenia makes his skewed case to the public and in international forums, he is essentially allowing Turkey to continue to deny the Armenian Genocide and empowering Azerbaijan to carry out mass atrocities without any accountability to international norms and laws.

Pashinyan’s approach to the issue of Genocide, and by extension, the Karabakh-Artsakh issue, has damaged the decades-long efforts by the Diaspora to advance the cause of justice for the Armenian people—the Armenian Nation.

History is inconvenient, but it also makes people what they are and provides them with an impetus to fight for what is theirs—their identity, their raison d’être, their NATION.

The pursuit of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide as stepping stone to garnering reparations and justice for the crime must continue as not only an Armenian-centric issue, but a human rights imperative. We, as Armenians, have argued for decades that recognition of the Armenian Genocide will prevent other such acts from ever occurring.

We have witnessed, first hand, that in the absence of international recognition of such crimes, despotic leaders are emboldened to commit even more heinous crimes against people. Case in point the situation in Palestine today and the ongoing struggle of Artsakh Armenians who have been forced from their homeland, both of which have been called genocide by international legal and rights experts.

So, can we truly say that the Armenian Genocide is in the past and that we must move forward?

We cannot. By ignoring and turning a deaf ear to history we are paving the way for more injustices and ensuring that the threat of genocide will loom for future generations of Armenians.

Let us commit ourselves to the Armenia Cause more forcefully for the sake of the future generations.

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