Dear colleagues,

The slogan of the Armenian Genocide Centennial is “I Remember and Demand”. I remember and demand so that any nation never again survives the disaster through which the Armenians passed 100 years ago. And when I handed over the photos of the Armenian Genocide victim children to Recep Erdogan, I met a glassy stare and silence, in response. I immediately recalled a statement by a Turkish political figure: “It is difficult to remove the hereditary hatred.” And I understood what I saw in Erdogan’s look.

Dear colleagues,

The Armenian Genocide has been recognized by genocidologists as archetype of a modern genocide, the lessons of which have had international use. One of the lessons is clear: denial of genocide encourages the perpetrators of future genocides, the way it encouraged Adolph Hitler, organizers of the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, and today the terrorists of “The Islamic State”. In order to prevent the future genocides, we should recognize and condemn all the genocides.

Just as, for instance, the genocide in Rwanda is not only the Hutu and Tutsi peoples’ problem, so too the Armenian Genocide is not only our pain and problem. It is the problem of the whole civilized humanity. Has there not been consciousness of this, the whole endeavors for the prevention of genocides will evaporate.

Raphael Lemkin, the lawyer, who put into circulation the term “genocide” in 1944, describing his personal feelings, wrote: “I identified myself more and more with the sufferings of the victims, whose numbers grew, as I continued my study of history. I understood that the function of memory is not only to register past events, but to stimulate human conscience. Soon contemporary examples of Genocide followed, such as the slaughter of the Armenians.”

Dear colleagues,

We are grateful to the Russian Federation for its consistent and honest position towards the Armenian Genocide issue. No political and economic interest can be above the historical truth. It is obvious, and this is a fact.

The Armenian parliament has come up with an important initiative: we apply to all the parliaments of the world to establish Commissions on Prevention and Condemnation of Genocides, so that we can say with confidence and conviction: “never again.” We are sure that the State Duma of the Russian Federation will also join that initiative. We should fight together for the international recognition and condemnation of the most villainous crime against humanity, genocide. We should fight together against denialism of genocides, as the denial is the last phase, which continues to make the survivors and their generations its victims, further deepening the open and bleeding wound.