Avoidance doubles the risk
President Serzh Sargsyan, accompanied by Speaker of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan, MPs, Ministers, the military and religious leadership of the country, visited Tsitsernakaberd this morning to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.
Armenian officials left the memorial without answering journalists' questions. Serzh Sargsyan only responded to an elderly man who handed handed him a letter through a security guard.
"We do not aim to recall the past. We aim to exclude reptition of similar crimes in the future," Minister of Justice Gevorg Danielyan. "All countries avoiding the recognition of the Armenian Genocide should realise that one day they can encounter the same problem in their own countries. Avoidance doubles the risk. History has shown that Armenia is not an exception," he added.
Ishkhan Zakaryan, Chairman of the RA Control Chamber, believes that Turkey will decounce the crime of its anscestors one day.
"The recent political developments show that Turkey is maneuvering and deliberatly lingering the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations in the hope that April 24 will be neglected," said ARF MP Hrayr Karapetyan.
The deputy is hopeful that U.S. President Barak Obama will pronounce the word "genocide" today thus encouraging the U.S. Congress to officially recognise the Armenian Genocide.
"The Italian government takes serious efforts to make the world avert repetition of genocides," said Riccardo Migliori, member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, who is in Armenia on an official visit. In 2002, Italy adopted a resolution denouncing the Armneian Genocide.
"It is very important that the sides want to continue the reconciliation process. I am an optimist and I think the issue will be settled," said Ambassador of Ukraine to RA Alexander Bozhko.
