Armenian National Committee of Canada
\n130 Albert St., Suite 1007
\nOttawa, ON KIP 5G4
\nTel: 613-235-2622
\nFax: 613-238-2622
\nE-mail: national.office@anc-canada.com<\/p>\n
Kenneth V. Hachikian
\nANCA Chairman Remarks to President Serge Sargsyan in New York (Oct 3)<\/p>\n
Mr. President:<\/p>\n
The Armenian National Committee of America stands with the
\noverwhelming majority of the Armenian American community in opposition
\nto the intense pressure by Turkey and its allies to force Armenia into
\naccepting a flawed and dangerous set of Protocols that threaten the
\nsecurity of Armenia, surrender the rights of the Armenian nation, and
\ninsult the dignity of the Armenian people.<\/p>\n
Among the ANCA’s primary concerns, in keeping with the basic American
\nprinciples of fairness and the enduring values of the Armenian nation,
\nis that Armenia, illegally blockaded by Turkey and under intense
\neconomic and diplomatic pressure, is being forced into accepting terms
\nthat threaten her interests, rights, safety, and future – very notably
\nin the form of a proposed “historical commission’, whatever its
\ncomposition turns out to be. This provision, a tactic long pursued by
\nAnkara to cast doubt on the historical record of the Armenian
\nGenocide, is clearly intended to serve Turkey’s drive to roll back the
\ngrowing tide of international recognition of this crime against
\nhumanity. \u00a0There can be, as a matter of basic morality and political
\nreality, no enduring relationship between Armenia and Turkey that is
\nnot built upon the foundation of Turkey’s acceptance of a true and
\njust resolution with respect to the Armenian Genocide.<\/p>\n
Further, these Protocols outrageously surrender the historical rights
\nof the Armenian nation to a just resolution of the Armenian
\nGenocide. They also dangerously undermine the right to freedom and
\nself-determination for the Nagorno Karabagh Republic.<\/p>\n
Mr. President, your actions in pursuing these protocols are
\nna\u00efve. They are reckless. And they are simply irresponsible. Your
\nassertion that they do not contain any preconditions insults our
\nintelligence. The requirement for a commission of historians, which I
\nmight point out has been soundly rejected by the International
\nAssociation of Genocide Scholars, the formal recognition of borders,
\nand the acknowledgement of territorial integrity without any mention
\nof self-determination are all preconditions imposed and insisted upon
\nby Turkey, which you have unwisely accepted at the point of their
\nblackmail of the closed borders. These preconditions were and are
\nrequirements of Turkey: they are the price you are willing to pay to
\nthe Turkish blackmailers. Many countries readily normalize relations
\nwithout such one-sided preconditions.<\/p>\n
How dare you accede to Turkish blackmail when our forbearers
\nsacrificed so much and suffered at the hands of the Turks, who to this
\nvery day deny the Genocide which the rest of the world acknowledges?<\/p>\n
How dare you attempt to squander the political capital that so many
\nhave, at great sacrifice, built up over the decades in capitals around
\nthe world? And make no mistake, signing the Protocols would put at
\nrisk that very capital. You have no moral right to do so. You have no
\npower to do so. And we will not allow you to do so.<\/p>\n
You cannot take away the rights of our nation and our people simply
\nbecause you view yourself as the savior of our country. You are not
\nsaving our country: you are relegating us to a subservient position
\nto Turkey while simply abandoning our rights to justice. Your efforts
\nare doomed to failure.<\/p>\n
You will be remembered as the president who led our country to a path
\nof dependency, who foolishly bargained away our lands, whose
\nmisjudgments led us to a weakened status. If you go forward with these
\nProtocols, your legacy will be deeply flawed.<\/p>\n
Do not attempt to hide behind the support of the minority who blindly
\noffer support for your initiatives. They are not the true grassroots
\nof the Diaspora. They simply do not represent the majority of the
\ncommunity. In the face of our vigilance in confronting successive US
\nadministrations over their blind and unwavering support for Turkey,
\ntheir default position is to support these policies of the US State
\nDepartment. They are the same people who surrendered Section 907 of
\nthe Freedom Support Act, who supported the disastrous Turkish Armenian
\nReconciliation Commission, and who supported the nomination of Richard
\nHoagland, a morally reprehensible genocide denier, to be ambassador to
\nArmenia. They no longer have political relevance in our
\ncommunity. Don’t be seduced by their meaningless support.<\/p>\n
Mr. President, you are making a grave mistake here. I hope you have
\nthe wisdom to listen to your countrymen and to back away from this
\ndisastrous agreement, before you bring great harm to our country, to
\nour people, and to your presidency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Armenian National Committee of Canada 130 Albert St., Suite 1007 Ottawa, ON KIP 5G4 Tel: 613-235-2622 Fax: 613-238-2622 E-mail: national.office@anc-canada.com Kenneth V. Hachikian ANCA Chairman Remarks to President Serge Sargsyan in New York (Oct 3) Mr. President: The Armenian National Committee of America stands with the overwhelming majority of the Armenian American community in opposition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":52500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}