President Serzh Sarkisian addresses the UN General Assembly
Wednesday
UN—Speaking at the UN General Assembly
Wednesday, President Serzh Sarkisian hinted that official Yerevan is
considering the recall of the Turkey-Armenia Protocols since Turkey continues
to insist on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict in favor of Azerbaijan as
a precondition for ratifying the documents.
“Ankara declares publicly that it will ratify those
Protocols only if Armenians cede Nagorno-Karabakh—Independent Artsakh–to
Azerbaijan. In Armenia and Artsakh ordinary people often just retort to such
preconditions: ‘To hell with your ratification,’” said Sarkisian. “This
vernacular phrase concentrates the age-old struggle of the entire nation, and
it unequivocally explains to those who attempt to bargain the others’ homeland
that the motherland is sacrosanct, and they had better stay away from us with
their bargain. It is in these circumstances that currently the official Yerevan
is seriously considering the issue of recalling the Armenian-Turkish Protocols
from the parliament.”
In his remarks, Sarkisian also addressed the international
crisis posed by ISIS, and remarked that on Armenia’s Independence Day, ISIS
forces destroyed the St. Mary’s Armenian Church in Der Zor, which served as a
memorial to the 1.5 victims of the Armenian Genocide.
He also chastised the international community for allowing
Azerbaijan to advance its anti-Armenian and war rhetoric.
“The failure of an adequate international characterization
of the bellicose declarations and various threats put forth at the highest
level in Azerbaijan has resulted in all-out permissiveness. The President of
Azerbaijan designates the entire Armenian nation as the ‘the enemy number one,’
and what is considered in the rest of the world to be a crime, is considered to
be a glorious deed in Azerbaijan,” said Sarkisian.
Below is the complete text of Sarkisian’s statement at the
UN.
Distinguished President of the General Assembly,
Distinguished Secretary General,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mr. President,
We conduct this meeting in a symbolically significant period
between the centennial of World War I and the 70th anniversary of the end of
World War II, the two turning points in the history of humanity. The United
Nations Organization was established almost seventy years ago at the end of
World War II, and its mission was to form new civilizational environment and
culture of preventing the repetition of the past tragic pages.
2015 bears particular significance for Armenians all over
the world. On April 24 Armenians around the globe will commemorate the most
tragic page of the nation’s history – the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.
It was an unprecedented crime aimed at eliminating the nation and depriving it
of its homeland: a crime that continues to be an unhealed scar for each
Armenian. The 1915 Genocide was a crime against civilization and humanity, and
its inadequate condemnation paved the way for similar crimes of mass murder in
the future.
Addressing the Assembly ahead of that centennial year of the
Armenian Genocide from this prominent podium, which I would call the podium of Honor
and Responsibility, I declare vociferously:
Thank you Uruguay, France, and Russia!
Thank you Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and
Sweden!
Thank you Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, and
Cyprus!
Thank you Lebanon, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Canada, and
Vatican!
Thank you for the recognition and condemnation of the
Armenian Genocide regardless of the format and language adopted. I thank the
U.S.A., European Union, and all those personalities, state bodies, territorial
units and organizations in numerous countries, who publicly called things by
their proper names. That is indeed extremely important since denial is a phase
of the crime of genocide.
For a whole century now Armenians around the globe as well
as the entire progressive international community expects Turkey to demonstrate
the courage and face its own history by recognizing the Armenian Genocide, thus
relieving next generations of this heavy burden of the past. Alas instead, we
continue to hear ambiguous and ulterior messages, in which the victim and the
slaughterer are equalized, and the history is falsified.
Armenia has never conditioned the normalization of the
bilateral relations with Turkey by recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In fact,
Armenia was the party that initiated such a process which culminated in the
signing of the Zurich Protocols in 2009. However, those Protocols have been
shelved for years now awaiting ratification in the Turkish Parliament. Ankara
declares publicly that it will ratify those Protocols only if Armenians cede
Nagorno- Karabakh, the free Artsakh, to Azerbaijan. In Armenia and Artsakh
ordinary people often just retort to such preconditions: “To hell with your
ratification.” This vernacular phrase concentrates the age-old struggle of the
entire nation, and it unequivocally explains to those who attempt to bargain
the others’ homeland that the motherland is sacrosanct, and they had better
stay away from us with their bargain. It is in these circumstances that currently
the official Yerevan is seriously considering the issue of recalling the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols from the parliament.
The tragic events in Syria and Iraq, which we are currently
witnessing, demonstrate how the groups whose creed is hatred are targeting
religious and national minorities. Two days ago, on Independence Day of the
Republic of Armenia, the Church of All Saint Martyrs in Deir-ez-Zor, Syria,
dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, where their
remains were housed, was mined and blown up by terrorists. Such a barbarity is
a criminal Godlessness in no way or shape related to any faith. The
catastrophic situation in Syria and the north of Iraq continuously
deteriorates, and today hundreds of thousands of peaceful people are directly
imperiled. Among them are tens of thousands of Armenians of Aleppo. This is an
instance of a peril to consider in the context of our joint commitments to
preventing the crimes against humanity. Armenia has voiced on numerous
occasions the necessity to defend the Armenian population of Syria and the
Yezidi population of north-western Iraq, and we are encouraged by the unified
stance of the international community in this regard.
The very essence of our organization is the preservation of
world peace and security. In recent years, Armenia has consistently
consolidated its peacekeeping capabilities thus preparing ourselves for a more
proactive engagement in that field. Armenian peacekeepers will very soon be
dispatched to the south of Lebanon within the framework of the UNIFIL mission
under the auspices of the United Nations. It became possible due to close
collaboration we enjoy with our Italian colleagues. I strongly believe that our
servicemen will fulfill their mission with dignity and high professionalism
also utilizing the extensive experience they have garnered in the last decade
in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Distinguished colleagues,
It has been more than twenty years our neighbor aborts the
efforts of the international community directed at the just and peaceful
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by its unconstructive and
maximalist stance. The failure of an adequate international characterization of
the bellicose declarations and various threats put forth at the highest level
in Azerbaijan has resulted in all-out permissiveness. The President of
Azerbaijan designates the entire Armenian nation as the “the enemy number one”,
and what is considered in the rest of the world to be a crime, is considered to
be a glorious deed in Azerbaijan.
Despite the fact that each conflict is unique, fundamental
human rights and freedoms, including the right of peoples to free expression of
will and self-determination, continue to evolve as a determinant to their
resolution. The vote held a few days ago in Scotland, once again proved that
nowadays the institute of referendum is more and more widely perceived as a
legal model for peaceful settlement of ethnic conflicts. It was no coincidence
that the right to govern one’s own fate through referendum is in the core of
the proposal put forward by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group for the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Ladies and gentlemen,
While discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement I
cannot but address the four UN Security Council resolutions, which were adopted
during the war, that every so often are exploited by Azerbaijani authorities in
order to justify their obstructive policy.
It is about those four Resolutions that demanded
unconditionally as a matter of priority cessation of all military hostilities.
Azerbaijan failed to comply. Azerbaijan’s own non-compliance with the
fundamental demands of these Resolutions made their full implementation
impossible. The Resolutions contained calls upon the parties to cease bombardments
and air strikes targeting peaceful civilian populations, to refrain from
violating the principles of international humanitarian law but instead
Azerbaijan continued its indiscriminate bombardments of civilian populations.
Azerbaijan did not spare children, women and old men thus gravely violating all
legal and moral norms of international humanitarian law.
Now Azerbaijan cynically refers to these Resolutions –
refers selectively, pulling them out of context as a prerequisite for the
settlement of the problem. The adequate interpretation of the UN Security
Council Resolutions is not possible without correctly understanding the
hierarchy of the demands set therein.
The Resolutions inter alia request the restoration of
economic, transport and energy links in the region (UN SC Resolution 853) and
removal of all obstacles to communications and transportation (UN SC Resolution
874). It is no secret that Azerbaijan and Turkey imposed blockade on
Nagorno-Karabakh and the Republic of Armenia from the outset of the conflict.
The Azerbaijani President in his statements even takes pride in this fact
promising his own public that direction would remain the priority of
Azerbaijan’s foreign policy.
The abovementioned UN Security Council Resolutions called
upon Azerbaijan to establish direct contacts with Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan
refused to establish any direct contact with Nagorno-Karabakh, which was a
legally equal party to the Ceasefire Agreement concluded in 1994, as well as to
a number of other international agreements. Moreover, Azerbaijan preaches
hatred towards people it claims it wants to see as a part of their state.
None of the UN SC Resolutions identifies Armenia as a
conflicting party. Our country is only called upon “to continue to exert its
influence” over the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians (UN SC Resolutions 853, 884) in
order to cease the conflict. Armenia fully complied, and partly owing to its
efforts a ceasefire agreement was concluded in 1994. All the UN SC Resolutions
have clearly recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as a party to the conflict.
Azerbaijani authorities have failed to implement the
fundamental demands of the Security Council resolutions, including abiding and
sticking by humanitarian norms. Incidentally, Azerbaijan has been gravely
violating this demand every now and then. Azerbaijan’s cruel and inhumane
treatment of the Armenian civilian prisoners of war regularly resulted in their
deaths. Although, I think, one shall not be surprised about it because it is
the same state that suppresses and exercises the most inhumane treatment of its
own people. A clear proof of it was the decision of the UN Subcommittee on
Prevention of Torture to suspend its visit to Azerbaijan due to the
obstructions it encountered in the conduct of the official Baku.
The Co-Chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group is the only
specialized structure that has been dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh issue
according to the mandate granted by the international community. While
Azerbaijan is very well aware that it could not possibly deceive or misinform
the Minsk Group, which is very-well immersed in the essence of the problem, it
attempts to transpose the conflict settlement to other platforms trying to
depict it as a territorial dispute or exploiting the factor of religious solidarity.
That is ironic, since Armenia traditionally enjoys very warm relations with the
Islamic states both in the Arab world or, for instance, with our immediate
neighbor Iran.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We highly value the indispensable role of the United Nations
in the adjustment and implementation of the development goals. I strongly
believe that through the new “Post-2015” development agenda we will continue
our efforts at seeking solutions and responding to challenges of global nature
stemming from the Millennium Development Goals.
In conclusion, I would like to underline that we have passed
the substantial part of the road leading to shaping the “Post-2015 Development
Agenda” and we will continue our endeavors in this regard by displaying
necessary flexibility in order to bring this process to its logical conclusion.
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