In Der Zor, Armenian president challenges Turkey

Condemns Genocide denial, demands justice in speech at "Armenian Auschwitz"

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Wednesday March 24, 2010

President Sargsyan speaking in Der Zor. President's office

Istanbul, Turkey - President Serge Sargsian condemned the denial of Armenian Genocide and urged its worldwide condemnation as he spoke on March 24 at the Armenian Genocide memorial in the Syrian desert of Der Zor where hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed.

On visit to Syria this week, Mr. Sargsyan challenged the Turkish government to end its discriminatory policy towards Armenia and demanded that past wrongs be addressed.

"As the President of the Republic of Armenia, the homeland of all Armenians, I am here to ask: "Where and when will be held our Nuremberg?"," the president said in reference to the trials held following the Holocaust.

Mr. Sargsyan also urged third parties not to use Armenia-Turkey dialogue as an excuse to avoid condemnation of the Genocide.

U.S. officials and others have in recent months refused to support affirmation efforts citing the protocols signed but not implemented by Armenia and Turkey.

On March 19, during her visit to Russia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about President Barack Obama's pledge to recognize the Genocide. Mrs. Clinton responded that Armenia and Turkey were "working" to set up a "historical commission" to ostensibly deal with the issue.

Pres. Sargsyan argued that "it is irrelevant to cite some Commission of Historians, since the Armenian-Turkish protocols provide for merely a governmental sub-commission on historic dimension."

The Armenian president also appealed to "all those who will have an occasion to express themselves on the topic of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, remember this desert, millions of ruined human fortunes and this ancient people deprived of their motherland and with pain in their hearts."

The full text of remarks is below:

Your Eminencies, 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am here today since I could not but be here. It is the greatest grief of my nation that has brought me here, the grief of the first genocide of the 20th century and the greatest disgrace of the civilized humanity.

Up to this moment, in the 21st century, the stigma of that disgrace still remains on the foreheads of all those who have turned the denial of the evident facts into their policy, turned it into their bargaining chip and into their lifestyle and norm of behavior. 

In the desert of Deir ez Zor the most monstrous acts of the tragedy had taken place, and it is neither possible to articulate the particulars of that tragedy in the language of human beings, nor am I going do that since these particulars are well-known even to those who publicly deny the veracity of the Genocide.

Bereft of home and property, bereft of children and parents, bereft of health and the last hope, and finally bereft of the most important - their homeland, these people were doomed to lose the last thing they had - their life in accordance with the state orchestrated and meticulously developed plan of extermination. 

Quite often historians and journalists soundly compare Deir ez Zor with Auschwitz saying that "Deir ez Zor is the Auschwitz of the Armenians".

I think that the chronology forces us to formulate the facts in a reverse way: "Auschwitz is the Deir ez Zor of the Jews". Only a generation later the humanity witnessed the Deir ez Zor of the Jews. Today, as the President of the Republic of Armenia, the homeland of all Armenians, I am here to ask: "Where and when will be held our Nuremberg?"

I'm here to commemorate and to pray for the vast majority of my slaughtered nation that had suffered both physical and cultural extermination. I will elaborate neither on the quality, nor on the quantity of the loss. Let me recall a single fact: as a result of the Genocide the greatest share of the dialects of one of the most ancient Indo-European languages - the Armenian - had been irreversibly eradicated along with its speakers. 

In spite of all that happened, we say that we are ready to establish normal diplomatic relations with the modern Turkey, we are ready to have open borders and economic relations, we are ready to make efforts towards building confidence between the peoples of Armenia and Turkey, we are ready to bring closer the two societies by breaking stereotypes and myths that have nothing to do with the reality and developed in decades of dearth of any sensible contacts. 

We do this sincerely since we believe that there is no alternative to the living and development between the neighbors through implementation of what is proposed and still at the table, at least to start it up. The signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols presented us with an historic opportunity that should have a logical destine.

We, however, do not accept the style of references to the Armenian-Turkish dialogue in attempts to avoid the recognition of the Genocide. I do not think it helps the process.

Moreover, it is irrelevant to cite some Commission of Historians, since the Armenian-Turkish protocols provide for merely a governmental sub-commission on historic dimension. I assume everyone understands what it means and what the difference is.

I ask all those who will have an occasion to elaborate or express themselves on the topic of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide: remember of this desert, millions of ruined human fortunes and this ancient people deprived of their motherland and with pain in their hearts, before you make up your minds.

In 1915 the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century - 35 years old Daniel Varuzhan and 37 years old Atom Yarjanian (Siamanto) had also been slaughtered. Before being tortured to death, they were undressed, because they wore European clothes.