Prime Minister's Message on the 106th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide Victims

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has sent a message on the occasion of the 106th anniversary of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

"Dear compatriots,

Today, as for decades, we commemorate the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide. We pay our respects to the one and a half million martyrs who fell victim to the criminal policies of the Ottoman Empire during the years of the First World War. One hundred and six years ago, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire perpetrated the first genocide of the 20th century, resulting in crimes against humanity and civilization, as recognized by the great powers of that time.

We, Armenians, will continue to remember and not allow the world to forget that on April 24, 1915, the intelligentsia of Western Armenians was arrested and sentenced to death.

The intellectual, spiritual, and cultural elite of our people was decimated. The Armenian people were stripped of their right to live in their homeland and were subjected to mass massacres and displaced from their country, enduring inhumane suffering and unprecedented losses. The damage inflicted on our cultural and religious heritage is immeasurable and irreparable.

Along with us, the Pontic Greeks, Assyrians, and Yezidis were also deprived of their rights to live in their native lands. For us Armenians, these fraternal peoples also faced annihilation.

Who are the culprits of these horrific crimes? The answer is unequivocal: the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire, driven by the ideology of Turkish nationalism and pan-Turkism, aimed to create a mono-ethnic and expansionist Turkey, which in turn gave rise to the ideas of hatred against Armenians and the elimination of national and religious minorities.

During the years of World War II, the genocide of the Jewish people was perpetrated under the leadership of the Nazi Party in Germany, resulting in six million Jewish victims. After the war, the criminals faced justice and received their rightful punishment. The ideology that guided the perpetrators was also condemned. Nazism justifiably came to be regarded as a criminal ideology, and today no one dares to speak in its defense.

However, the same did not happen in the case of the Armenian Genocide due to historical circumstances. During the first half of the last century, justice mechanisms that would hold states accountable for such enormous crimes were not yet in place. The term 'genocide' did not even exist.

Moreover, the Armenian people were deprived of the opportunity to pursue their case. In the early decades following the genocide, the voice of the Diaspora was not sufficiently heard; it was still healing its wounds and rebuilding its national structures. Meanwhile, Soviet Armenia was entirely deprived of the opportunity to pursue the matter until the end of World War II.

The Armenian Diaspora was able to make the issue of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide audible in the decades following World War II. However, during that time, when the world was bipolar, pan-Turkism was viewed as a historical relic. The Armenian Genocide and the ideologies that spawned it remained unpunished. And the unpunished crimes and the ideologies that nurtured them tend to recur and resurface.

The second Karabakh war, the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression targeting the extinction of the Armenian people in Artsakh, and Turkey's expansionist foreign policy, as well as its territorial ambitions towards Armenia, are testimonies to the resurgence of genocidal ideologies. Hatred against Armenians is embedded in the essence of pan-Turkism, and today we see its most despicable manifestations in Azerbaijan, carried out by the authorities of that country.

What should our response be to this neo-pan-Turkist threat? Only a robust, modern, and powerful Armenia, built on the principles of democracy and the rule of law, can respond effectively. At the same time, it is undeniable that only the condemnation of the crime can prevent future atrocities, and we appreciate and value the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by various countries around the world.

However, this should not be interpreted as a rejection of regional dialogue. We are ready for it. But the dialogue we envision cannot take place from a position of strength. It can only occur on the basis of equality. We will never question the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide, and let no one think that any Armenian, any political faction from Armenia or the Diaspora, will ever betray the memory of our innocent victims and become an accomplice in the Armenian Genocide.

The recognition and condemnation of genocide should halt new atrocities.

Dear compatriots,

April 24 is the most compelling moment for our nation to reflect on our past and future, an opportune moment to reassess our strengths and what we must do. The most important conclusion to be drawn from this is that the challenges facing our people at the beginning of the last century still exist today. The second Karabakh war was vivid evidence of this. Only an Armenia with a leading economy, a modern security and political system, that brings together all Armenians, can stand against these challenges."