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Third Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan issued a message on the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide commemorated on April 24. His full message is provided below. 

"The Armenian Genocide, which took place at the beginning of the 20th century in the Ottoman Empire, was carried out right before the eyes of the civilized world, enclosed in indifference, silence and indolence of the progressive countries.

One and a half million Armenians were forcibly displaced, expelled from their homeland and subjected to mass extermination, a vast part of the millennia-long Armenian heritage was destroyed. Despite multiple and obvious facts, reports of the witnesses Turkey continues to deny this gravest crime which took place over a one hundred years ago.

The first and unpunished genocide of the 20th century thus bred new crimes against humanity carried out against other nations, ethnic cleansing, xenophobia and genocides – all this, unfortunately, has become a reality.

Only months ago, in September of 2023, Azerbaijan and Turkey, which supports Azerbaijan openly and in every way, another 140 thousand Armenians were expelled from their homeland where they lived for millennia; some of them died on the route due to unbearable conditions, hunger, disease, exhaustion and despair. Before the forced expulsion, the Armenians of Artsakh nearly one year were facing a daily threat of war, were subjected to a blockade and tough conditions of the humanitiarian crisis. Following in the steps of the Ottoman Empire, Azerbaijan today is erasing with impunity Armenian traces, the millennia long historical and religious heritage.

Azerbaijan and Turkey, which call themselves “one nation – two states”, have made xenophobia their state policy, and today too, through deceitful peaceloving slogans are trying to dull the vigilence of the international community and bring to its conclusion the crime, which was set into motion at the beginning of the last century, and fulfill their long-cherised plan of Pan-Turkism.

Peace cannot be imposed under humiliating conditions. It leads toward subjugation, rather than peace.

By making the current rulers of Armenia their stooges through the threats and all kind of pressure, Turkey and Azerbaijan are striving to get their dream at the expense of Armenia and the Armenian people. After illicitly recognizing Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, the current rulers of Armenia are now trying to send into oblivion the Armenian Genocide, call the Armenian nation’s struggle for historical justice, restoration of our rights a threat for the statehood. It is a threat only to their power but never to the state.

Today, we commemorate the one and a half million martyrs of the Armenian Genocide and demand from the rulers of Armenia to keep on the state agenda the Declaration adopted at the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide which represents the united will of the Armenian nation.

The issue of the Armenian Genocide is non-negotiable – neither on the international arena, nor in Armenia itself.

Only the immediate ousting of the defeatist authorities through the all-national rising can save the state from the downfall."