DEM Party commemorates victims of the Armenian Genocide: We share the 111 years of pain and mourning

The DEM Party Central Executive Board stated in a statement marking the 111th anniversary of the genocide against Armenians that they share the “pain and mourning” and feel “this great human tragedy deeply in our hearts.”

The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) released a statement marking the 111th anniversary of the 110th anniversary of the April 1915 Genocide, in which the Ottoman government embarked upon the systematic extermination of its civilian Armenian population. The Armenian population of the Ottoman state was reported at about two million in 1915. An estimated one million had perished by 1918, while hundreds of thousands had become homeless and stateless refugees. By 1923, virtually the entire Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey had disappeared.

In a written statement on the occasion, the DEM Party said: “111 years have passed since an ethnic, religious and cultural genocide began on April 24, 1915, with more than two hundred Armenian intellectuals being detained from their homes and sent to death. This process, which began on April 24, continued with the exile and massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians. Other Christian peoples of these lands also paid a very heavy price as a result of these policies and practices; they were massacred.”

The statement continued: “Today, it has become clear that the attempt to erase the experiences of different peoples, beliefs, identities and cultures that exist on these lands—in other words, the mentality of eliminating differences, denying them, and creating a homogeneous society—has been a historical mistake.

The universal truth that no ethnic identity, language, culture or belief on these lands is superior to another, and that all are equal and free, must be socially and politically recognized and internalized.”

Stating that developing diplomatic, commercial, economic and cultural relations with Armenia is both a necessity and in the interest of the peoples, as well as essential for building peace in the Caucasus region, the DEM Party concluded: “As the ancient peoples of Anatolia and Mesopotamia, we once again share the 111 years of pain and mourning of the Armenian people and other Christian peoples, and we commemorate with sorrow and respect all those who were killed during that period. We feel this great human tragedy deeply in our hearts.”

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