YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARTSAKHPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan issued an address on the Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day on April 24.
Below is the full address.
“Dear people, dear compatriots, on April 24th we commemorate the 1,5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 20th century, and today tens of thousands of citizens will conduct a march of respect, commemoration and contemplation to the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial.
The April 24 march is perhaps the most impactful occurrence that has predetermined and is predetermining our reality, an exclusive day to ponder on our history, past and future. What are the young parents, often holding the hands of their children, walking to the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial or the grandmothers and grandfathers having greater life experience thinking? They are perhaps contemplating about two questions – why did the Armenian Genocide happen and what has to be done to rule out its repetition. Hundreds and thousands of studies on the reasons of the Armenian Genocide have been written, numerous reasons and motives have been identified. In terms of the methodology of ruling out the repetition of such a crime, this greatly depends on our perceptions of the ideas of ‘state’ and ‘region’.
Only a state, a developed and sovereign state is capable of ensuring the existence and security of our people, while everyone has a job to do in establishing the state, through education, work, civil responsibility and respect towards law.
Our strategic choice regarding the region is the following: do we have the will and capability to resolve and develop our regional relations regardless or moreover in the case when the security challenges around us are getting worse because of regional or extra-regional reasons?
Realizing all difficulties and hardships, our government has decided to proceed on the path of finding a positive answer to this question because it is only this path that can guarantee security and prosperity.
Dear people, dear compatriots, today we bow before the memory of the 1,5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide and we ponder over the past, present and future. And this is the most appropriate moment to ponder on the past, present and future.”
