Category: News

Horizon Weekly – Members of the Armenian Youth Federation of Canada gathered in Ottawa on April 23 prior to the official commemoration day of the 101st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide to raise awareness about the cause.

Earlier the day, more than 100 activists gathered at the busiest intersections of Canada’s capital, distributing over 2,000 informative fliers about the Genocide and the Turkish government’s ongoing policy of denial.

At 6:00 PM, the activists, tied to each other with rope, depicting a typical deportation march, marched down Sussex Dr. while reading historic accounts of the Genocide. The march concluded at the the CF Rideau Centre, where the participants staged a mass die-in to draw the public’s attention, who were provided with further information.

Thousands of Canadians will gather on Sunday, April 24th at the Turkish Embassy to protest against the Turkish government.

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today issued the following statement after the Administration failed to call the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish government a genocide:

“As we mark the 101st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, I call on the Administration to recognize the murder of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-1923 by Ottoman Turkey for what it was: genocide. Recognition of past genocides is crucial for preventing future genocides, so it is long past due to speak honestly about what happened to the Armenians.”

Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama’s comment on the 1915 incidents represented a “one-sided interpretation of history,” Anadolu Agency reports.

President Obama described the 1915 ikilling of Armenians within the Ottoman Empire as “Meds Yeghern”, an Armenian term meaning “great calamity” in a

In a written statement ,Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Obama’s statement was a new example of a one-sided history telling of the “pain suffered during the World War I”.

“Turkey has shown the will to build a joint future with peace based on the shared living experience for centuries between Turkish and Armenian nations. It is sad that friend and ally countries encourage the circle that [aim] to deepen the conflict instead of answering [Turkey’s] call. It is obvious that the efforts to politicize the pain suffered in history do not do any good to anyone so far.”

“While this is the situation, the circles that aim to profit from the positions that third-party countries would take on the different dates of the year not only harm the hope for friendship and peace but they also disrespect the pain suffered during those days.”

“We invite the U.S. government to evaluate the historical facts based on a fair memory while taking into consideration the pain of all sides and adopt an objective, reasonable and constructive approach.”

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan had a phone conversation with UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon at the initiative of the latter.

The UN Secretary General said he regrets the delay of the visit to Armenia due to unforeseen circumstances.

Ban ki-Moon attached importance to the process of peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict and expressed his full support to the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

Noting that the Armenian society had long been waiting for the UN Secretary General’s visit, President Sargsyan voiced hope his visit would be organized within new mutually agreed terms.

On 2 April 2016, Defense Army of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic downed an Azerbaijani Air Force Mi-24G attack helicopter, which was carrying out a combat flight during the military aggression of Azerbaijan against the NKR. The following has been collected from the crash site of the downed helicopter:

–       flight maps;

–       pilot tablets;

–       user manual for night vision equipment;

–       personal notebook of one of the pilots;

–       VHF ACR500-A 30-420 MHz radio;

–       ARK-U2 automatic radio compass;

–       – SARPP-12 flight data recorder with a cassette;

–      –  part of the helmet-mounted night vision device;

–       – 10 links with eight 20 mm cannon shells;

–       – optoelectronic module with a gyro-stabilized platform.

The analysis of data from the seized property (flight documentation) revealed that:

1. between 31 March and 1 April 2016, the downed Mi-24G as part of a squadron flew from Baku “Kala” air base to “Zhdanovsk” with a stopover at “Kyurdamir” air base;
2. the route and the specified targets on the flight map indicate that the crew was tasked to attack targets in the territory of NKR, at a depth of three to ten kilometers from the Line of Contact;
3. according to the flight map, an advanced landing ground had been prepared to reduce the time for aircrafts to go into combat;
4. in the area of mount Lyalya Ilyagi, a grid was applied with the possible directions of aviation spotters’ work with a group of army aviation helicopters;
5. the total duration of flight of the downed helicopter is about three hours;
6. objective control data contain records of three separate flights, including the last one.

The NKR Defense Ministry earlier provided this information to the Ministry of Defense of Armenia to introduce it to military attaches of foreign countries accredited in Yerevan.

According to radar reconnaissance of the NKR air defense forces, during the 4-day aggression up to 60 aircraft-flights of the Azerbaijani armed forces were recorded, of which 40 with the use of various types of weapons on the positions of the NKR Defense Army. This is confirmed by the analysis of the armaments, technical equipment, flight maps, pilot`s notebook, as well as the transcript of the SARPP-12 data found at the crash site of the Mi-24G. In the first 12 hours of aggression by the Azerbaijani armed forces, 40 army aviation helicopters were involved.

The actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces, as well as the documents seized from the downed Mi-24G show that the 4-day military aggression of Azerbaijan against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic was planned in advance by the Azerbaijani leadership.

Today, at the K. Demirjian Sport and Concert Compound President Serzh Sargsyan participated at the opening of the which was conducted under the subtitle Living Witnesses of Genocide
At the Forum the President of Armenia made a statement.

Statement by the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan at the opening of the Second Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide

Distinguished guests,
Distinguished participants of the Global Forum,

One year ago, on the eve of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, I had the honor to declare the launching of the work of this Global Forum, with a strong faith in its mission and success. That mission was to identify the issues related to the prevention of genocide, develop the avenues for their resolution and consolidate the potential of the civilized humankind in order to register a decisive victory over the crimes against humanity in the 21st century.

Today, as one year has passed since then, I can state with the outmost certainty that we have achieved those objectives: the first forum found extensive response both with the expert community and thousands of people both in Armenia and way beyond its borders. It provided with an opportunity to the world to discuss anew genocide as the gravest crime committed by human beings. That was a reason good enough for us to make this conference a permanent platform for those individuals, genocide survivors, their successors and, of course, States and international structures that are determind and consentaneous to make their contribution to this universal struggle.

I warmly welcome you all, and I am very glad that we are united.

Ladies and gentlemen,
2015 was an important milestone for us to grasp anew the one hundred year-long struggle of our nation for its right to exist and restoration of historical justice. The Armenian Genocide Centennial was marked not by mourning but the messages of gratitude and revival that we sent out to the world, as well as determination to make the Republic of Armenia one of the pioneering forces to lead the struggle against that crime. Our vision is crystal crisp: it is necessary to instill consciousness of the absolute inadmissability of genocide in order to prevent such catastrophes unfolding.

2015 was important in that context since a number of Heads of States, Parliaments, international structures, religious organizations, prominent individuals expressed their solidarity to our joint struggle against genocide by recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide.

The current logics of the global development unambiguously registers that we are all interdependent, and that interdependence transforms a failure of one into a failure of all, and that is also true for a success or suffering. Today it is difficult to imagine a security challenge that threatens only one nation. Therefore, none of us can consider oneself ensured against the horrors that our ancestors went through in the 20th century, that our contemporaries are surviving in the 21st century unless we decide that we should state ‘never again’ regardless of the price that every one of us should pay. That same logics also reminds us that a genocide committed at any corner of the world should be viewed as a failure for the international community as a whole, and the prevention of it is the duty of every single one of us individually and of the humankind collectively. Hence, it is natural that those, who underwent and survived genocide and their generations shall be continuously looking at the international community and pressing for justice.

Distinguished participants,
The general heading for this year’s conference is “Living Witnesses of Genocide” that allows us to uncover the issues of outmost importance related both to addressing the consequences of genocide and its prevention. Today there are here with us living witnesses that survived genocide. People, who felt on their own skin the indescribable and unutterable horrors of genocide, irremidiable pain of loss, yearn, homeland dispossession, and at the time they should have bade farewell to their own past and future. For every single one of them it was hard to be optimistic, but they are here to register that genocide perpetrators have not won. I strongly believe that they all have gone through a valorous path and throughout that path they met people, who extended helping hand, assisted in their recovery and inspired their hopes… People, who revolted against the scourge of their time and did not bear with indifference, who neglected their very own interests since they could have not beared with injustice, who risked themselves in order to save one more human life.

Today, unfortunately, the humankind still lacks humanness. It is demostrated by the wave of denial by the genocide perpetrators and their successors. It was rightly noted by the Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel that to deny would be akin to killing victims a second time. In some instances denial is expressed through violation of the right to remembrance and awareness. Denial imposes constant feeling of fear unto the survivors and their successors since those who deny or justify what had happened do not directly exclude the possibility of ruccurence of that very same crime should there be aproppriate conditions for that.

Meanwhile, I believe that the international legal documents related to the crime of genocide do not pay due attention to the international legal regulation of the issues related to the genocide survivors. The same is also true for the international legal regime related to the refugees. It is critical to understand how to define a special legal status for survivors of genocide and other crimes against humanity through the improvement of the existing legal mechanisms or introduction of new legal norms; otherwise, perhaps, it would be impossible to comprehensively approach this issue.
Any reasonable adjudication of a crime requires also recognition of the rights of the victims concerning their losses and suffering. Certainly, it is also true for the survivors of genocide and other crimes against humanity. Necessary mechanisms should be installed, which will allow both recognizing that right and implementing it.

Distinguished colleagues,

As recent crises in the Middle East have demonstrated, nowadays the issue of genocide prevention remains urgent and topical. Lately, the world has been watching with repulsion how the terrorists of the Islamic State have been torturing, beheading and mutilating innocent people, including women, children, and elderly people. The world is shocked with the barbarities that are carried out by a gang of thugs, who can hardly be called to justice and can be fought against barely with missiles.
Nevertheless, if the thugs that carry out atrocities are fought with missiles, a question comes up: what kind of responsibility should bear a State, a subject of international law, for condoning and carrying out similar crimes?

What would you say of a country, a fully-fledged subject of international law, a member of the UN, Council of Europe and various other structures, a signatory of the humanitarian conventions, whose script is not much different from that of the Islamic State? Just a few weeks ago, during the large-scale offensive unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh, Azeri soldiers were not content with just shooting their arms: they mutilated elderly people, Armenian soldiers, decapitated them and cut off their ears and presented those actions in the social networks as a manifestation of heroism. It was all evidently encouraged by the Azerbaijani authorities. Is not it bizarre that a country that pursues such barbaric policy and violates all the norms of civilized conduct, these days is going to host a conference under the rubric of “Alliance of Civilizations?” Is this an approach to be tolerated? We must get to the point, when a display of such hatred shall not be tolerated, when any government shall refrain from such conduct mindful that it may be hold responsible for it.
We as the international community must swiftly and resolutely eradicate all such instances of genocidal conduct wherever they should occur, as it was done some days ago by the leadership and public of Sweden with regard to the hate speech directed against Armenians by the Turkish nationalist Barbaros Leylani. This requires our concerted effort, perhaps even subordination of geopolitical interests, ability to voice strict and targeted condemnation. Unless we are able to nip such conduct in the bud, we will have to deal with the elimination of their various and unpredictable consequences; we will continue to face various crimes nourished by hatred – crimes, among which are the terrorist activities that gain new range and scale on our continent.

Ladies and gentlemen,
On the Armenian Genocide Centennial the Armenian nation sent out a message of gratitude to the entire world. The Hundred Lives initiative and the Aurora Prize were launched on behalf of the survivors and as a token of appreciation to those who in the direst times came to the Armenian people’s rescue. I congratulate and express my admiration to the nominees of the Prize. All your stories are very touching; at the same time, those are inspiring and encouraging. I thank the founders of this project – Vartan Gregorian, Noubar Afeyan, and Ruben Vardanian, organizers of the award ceremony, as well as all those who have contributed to the implementation of this momentous initiative.

I wish all of us productive work. I also wish that future generations learn about crimes against humanity only from books.

The negotiation process cannot continue as long as there is shooting or threat of shooting in the direction of Nagorno Karabakh, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters today, as he commented on the results of the Russian Foreign minister’s visit to Armenia.

According to Kocharyan, the first and most important outcome was the reiteration of the fact that the 1994 ceasefire agreement remains in force, and the utmost goal today is to ensure peace and stability.

The Deputy Foreign Minister attached special importance to the statement that concrete measures reinforcing the ceasefire regime should be initiated not only by the Co-Chairs, but also the German Presidency of the OSCE.

Referring to Sergey Lavrov’s remarks on Kazan document, Kocharyan said: “There are two platforms. The first one is the Madrid document, which led to Kazan, which Azerbaijan turned down. The second platform are the proposals targeted at reinforcement of the ceasefire regime, implementation of confidence-building mechanisms,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said.

The Deputy Foreign Minister confirmed that the Madrid Principles envisage concessions, but it’s up to Nagorno Karabakh to make a decision. “No Armenian official will ever be able to solve the issue of territories and status for Artsakh,” he concluded.