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Arman Yeghoyan, a member of the National Assembly “Civil Agreement” faction, stated from the podium of the Parliament that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide has become an object of international trade, and asked what is its ultimate goal when sufficient resources have been spent. The CP deputy also claimed that during the First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s reign, the issue of recognizing the Armenian Genocide was not on the foreign political agenda of RA.

RPA GM member Eduard Sharmazanov 168.amin a conversation with the representative of the government, he referred to the statements and the theses put forward.

“It is not news that the “Civil Contract” party refused to consider the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a foreign policy priority. But today I can’t help but refer to the speech of the CP guise, I consider it as the official position of the “Civil Agreement” party.

He tried to question the purpose of the international recognition of the Genocide, asking what the end result was, what did it give to the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people. With this, he tries to nullify the efforts and results that have been achieved over the decades. Now let’s first fix what Genocide is.

First, genocide is not only a crime committed against a particular nation or ethnic group, but also a crime against universal values. It is absolutely reprehensible. It is no coincidence that not only in the case of the Armenian Genocide, but also, for example, the Holocaust, we have a long chain of international recognition and condemnation.  In other words, progressive humanity must condemn genocides.

Secondly, in the case of the Armenian Genocide, as early as May 24, 1915, the governments of France, Russia and Great Britain called the mass murders of Armenians “a crime against humanity and civilization,” he noted.

Referring to Yeghoyan’s other thesis that they are not the first to refuse to consider the recognition of the Genocide as a foreign policy priority, and that in 1991-1998 Sharmazanov said that it was not a state priority even during the time of the first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

“Of course it is, but there is a big but. unlike Nikol Pashinyan’s regime and Nikol Pashinyan, the first government of RA, Ter-Petrosyan, did not say that the agenda of international recognition of the Genocide is a foreign narrative, imported from other places, referring to the Russians. The government of the first president did not say that we still need to understand why and how the Genocide happened, the reasons for it, like another CP hypocrite, he did not say that we should take out the names of 1.5 million martyrs individually, that is, he did not question it. Parallels are incompatible. Yes, under both Ter-Petrosyan and Nikol Pashinyan, this issue was not a priority, but like Pashinyan, Ter-Petrosyan did not say why they didn’t talk about the Genocide in the 1930s, but they started talking about it in the 1950s.”

“The CP deputy says that he did not recognize any state at RA’s request, and that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide has several reasons: it is the Armenian diaspora, the relations of these countries with Turkey, that is, according to him, when this issue became a priority of the political agenda, it did not bring any benefit.

The main goal of the condemnation and recognition of the genocide is to condemn the crimes of the past so that new crimes are not repeated.  Both in the Pan-Armenian Declaration and in 2015, during the entire term of office of President Serzh Sargsyan and the Republican Party, the best prevention solution was condemnation, because if you do not condemn past crimes, there is a risk of new crimes and crimes. When Nikol Pashinyan and his government changed its course in recognizing the genocide after 2020, a new crime occurred in 2023.

In the case of Latvia, it was a process that started during my time. And fortunately, the Republic of Armenia is not the only government, there are also opposition forces. The opposition forces have their own connections and have been in contact with our partners until the end, both with Potapkin, and with Inese, and with Klementevs, the Latvian Parliament, which recognized the Armenian Genocide. With the ethnic cleansing of the people of Artsakh, the hands of Turkey and Azerbaijan were freed. As a result, there are no Armenians in Artsakh today. What was the end result, the end result of the international recognition of the Genocide is the condemnation of that crime by the international community, as it happened in the case of the Holocaust, so that new crimes are not repeated. This is a clear goal. And when they didn’t do it… Not only did they not do it, but they did the opposite. We witnessed how this led to the new genocidal policy of Azerbaijan. Their silence, inaction and, perhaps, silent justification led to the fact that today there are no Armenians in Artsakh,” said the former deputy speaker of the National Assembly.

Has the recognition of the Genocide not become an object of international trade, as the CP deputy claims, the Republican figure responded.

“Who did we trade with? we had our clear red lines. Azerbaijan and Turkey are a threat to us, and we have advanced our agenda. In 2015, more than 100 delegations of the world powers, the Pope, Putin, Hollande, were here.

Not to mention that Nikol Pashinyan considers himself a “bastion of democracy”. How can the bastion of democracy not consider the condemnation of the crime committed against humanity and the Armenian nation to be its priority? After all, the basis of democracy is human rights, and the main purpose of the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide was precisely that: to condemn and prevent, so that the hands of Turkey and Azerbaijan are not free to do what they want.

Next, Yeghoyan alludes to closed borders in his speech. Dear CP members, who closed the borders? Even during the reign of the First President, in 1993, after the Karvachar operation, Turkey closed the border, this is a well-known fact. No government in Armenia, including Serzh Sargsyan’s government, was against the opening of the borders with Turkey, moreover, Serzh Sargsyan initiated “football diplomacy” without establishing relations with preconditions. Turkey set preconditions, and Serzh Sargsyan sent those protocols to the writer’s bosom.

During the period of Serzh Sargsyan’s rule (2008-2018), not only the international recognition of the Genocide gained new momentum, but also the criminalization of denial was carried out in a number of countries. Including, with the efforts of your humble servant, Cyprus criminalized the denial of the Armenian Genocide. On the territory of Cyprus, they have no right to deny the Armenian Genocide, it is criminalized, and its purpose was also prevention.

A democratic state cannot not condemn past crimes against humanity, when, until past crimes are not condemned, there is a risk of new crimes, which happened in the case of Artsakh.  The answer to Yeghoyan’s question is exactly this: whenever the government of Armenia is silent, a new disaster comes. “The international recognition of the genocide came from the security of the Armenian people and the Republic of Armenia, to keep Turkey’s hands away from Artsakh,” said Eduard Sharmazanov.

The opposition figure remarked, “They say, ‘it didn’t do anything.’ How is it that when we go to those international forums, we see how the entire diplomatic corps of Turkey and Azerbaijan fills the parliaments of the countries where the issue of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is discussed? Why do they do that, if it “gives nothing?” He says one more thing: “Well, the Genocide was recognized during our government as well.” During your rule, it was recognized, first of all, because there was the Armenian diaspora, Hay Dat.

“As for the case of Latvia, it was a process that started during my time. Fortunately, the Republic of Armenia is not only the government. there are also opposition forces that have their own international connections. We have been in contact with our partners until the end, as a result of which the Latvian parliament recognized the Armenian Genocide.

The Republican Party used all its resources in the EPP (European People’s Party), in Russia, in India, and in contacts with the Chinese Communist Party. Wherever we spoke, we served the interests of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh.

And now to stand up and say, “What did it matter, what is the end result?”… This is like saying, “If you are going to die, why were you born?” It is a stupid approach.

The Jewish people or Israel condemning the holocaust, what does it mean? If someone says something like that in the Israeli parliament, society will hold him in contempt,” remarked Eduard Sharmazanov.

In this context, Sharmazanov once again reiterated that the international recognition of the Genocide is a matter of human rights protection, so the crimes committed against humanity must be condemned. Second, it aims to prevent new crimes, which the ruling party did not prevent, and ethnic cleansing took place in Artsakh.

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