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When,
on January 25th,1973 in Los Angeles, a seventy-year old man, Gurgen
YANIKIAN, a survivor of the Genocide, who saw with his own eyes the
slaughter of his family, killed the consul and vice-consul of the
so-called Turkish government, this survivor of the massacres of 1915
and witness of the murder of his family, was not facing ordinary
civil servants but soldiers, hired men on the pay of theTurkish army
with a political and military willingness to destroy the Armenian
nation to the last man.
These atrocities, this denial of existence and national sovereignty,
far beyond the recognition of the Genocide by the so-called Turkish
nation, demonstrates a large-scale military willingness and the
present intent to carry on exterminating Armenians.
As regards the « ordinary Turkish citizen » living in a former
Armenian village, whom house is covered with « Khatchkar » Armenian
tombstone from a cemetery profaned by his own father or grandfather,
he wonders who sculpted so finely and delicately these
masterpieces.
At present, cemeteries, churches, monasteries, countless testimonies
of the existence of our grandparents, are unreachable, abandoned,
destroyed by the immigrant’s populations. On this high-altitude
land, the 3000-year history of a nation is thus erased thanks to
millions of dollars, the United Nations remaining totally
unconcerned.
After
destroying our towns and villages, annihilating our populations, the
« turks » as well as the European states suffering from islamic
modernism, think they have done with us. These states would be
radically opposed to our existence as Armenians, they would even be
surprised that their integration and assimilation systems could not,
within one century, complete the massive destruction of Armenian
civilian populations.
How could
these mountain people, firmly rooted in the furthermost boundaries
of Asia Minor, still exist and resist, after all they suffered ?
« Turkish history, an European
invention ? »
The Final Act of Helsinki Conference (August 1st, 1975) is today
used as an excuse for turning down any debate on boundaries
modifications in Europe. What is it really all about ?
I. Sovereign
equality, respect for the rights inherent in sovereignty
The participating States
will respect each other's sovereign equality and
individuality as well as all the rights inherent in and
encompassed by its sovereignty, including in particular
the right of every State to juridical equality, to
territorial integrity and to freedom and political
independence. They will also respect each other's right
freely to choose and develop its political, social,
economic and cultural systems as well as its right to
determine its laws and regulations.
Within the framework
of international law, all the participating States have
equal rights and duties. They will respect each other's
right to define and conduct as it wishes its relations
with other States in accordance with international law
and in the spirit of the present Declaration. They
consider that their frontiers can be changed, in
accordance with international law, by peaceful means and
by agreement. They also have the right to belong or not
to belong to international organizations, to be or not
to be a party to bilateral or multilateral treaties
including the right to be or not to be a party to
treaties of alliance; they also have the right to
neutrality.
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Should
the European Union welcome the so-called Turkey including the
Western Armenian occupied territories, this means it would thus
support and ratify in complete impunity the military willingness of
Turks to destroy the Armenian element.
The
Society of Nations, responsible for and accomplice of the Genocide
from 1895 to 1923, which is now replaced by the European Union,
would then confirm, after recognizing the boundaries of the
so-called Turkey including Western Armenia, her criminal position as
an heiress of the Turkish history, thus preventing any alternative
of political agreement.
The
provisions of the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference (August 1st
1975) which, by all means, have a political but not legal value,
only prohibit the modifications obtained by violence and not the
ones resulting from negotiations between the concerned nations
(like the Turkish access to Nakhitchevan negotiated with Iran on
January 23rd 1932).
The Final Act considers that the
boundaries in Europe may not be violated, but may be modified.
For this
reason, France, after having recognized the Armenian Genocide,
cannot make a decision about the admission of the so-called Turkey
in the European Union, without a national referendum and only
according to the will of the President of the French Republic.
This
process of admission of the so-called Turkey in the European Union,
with or without the approval of the French nation, shall be
considered as contrary to the Charter of the United Nations, insofar
as and only provided that the exiled Armenians residing in France
claim their fundamental rights.
Article 1
1. All
peoples have the right of self-determination. By
virtue of that right they freely determine their
political status and freely pursue their
economic, social and cultural development.
2. All
peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose
of their natural wealth and resources without
prejudice to any obligations arising out of
international economic co-operation, based upon
the principle of mutual benefit, and
international law. In no case may a people be
deprived of its own means of subsistence.
3. The
States Parties to the present Covenant,
including those having responsibility for the
administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust
Territories, shall promote the realization of
the right of self-determination, and shall
respect that right, in conformity with the
provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
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"We have no other choice for our
future than disappearing or fighting to assert our rights to exist."
The present international order contains the seeds of violence, the
armed struggle of the 70-80 years resulted from this discrimination.
But such violence, which was not so blind as it seemed and gave rise
to a national awakening after decades of physical and cerebral
overwhelming, cannot satisfy the long-term aspirations of a nation
to exist.
The
Armenians who claim their right to exist, have the right and even
the duty to be collectively reconstituted, regardless of political
ideologies without any future. Fratricide ideological struggles
which, as a matter of fact, occurred in the absence of a national
structure, prevented the political emancipation and the emergence of
the right to self-determination of the exiled Armenian people.
This collective
reconstitution would be a strong sign of political maturity, this is
only thanks to this willingness of collective responsibility that
the exiled Armenians will be able to fight against any threat on
their existence :
·
to
keep up and promote their language, history, traditions and
culture ;
·
to
define their own substance and development programme ;
·
to
make a decision about belonging to a given state or creating their
own state ;
·
to
organize their political status ;
·
to
manage their daily life.
On
December 17th 2004, according to the decision of the heads of state
of the European Union for against the start of negotiations
regarding the admission of the so-called Turkey in this
organization, the exiled Armenian nation will be legitimately
entitled to declare her right to self-determination and to form a
national executive council in order to enforce her fundamental
rights, within the specific framework of the Assembly of Armenians
from Western Armenia.
We request
all the exiled Armenians recognizing that their roots are in Western
Armenia, regardless of political or religious belief, to gather
within the Assembly of Armenians from Western Armenia in order to
assert their fundamental rights to self-determination.
Arménag APRAHAMIAN
Member of the
Assembly of Armenians from Western Armenia
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