1 / 3

On April 13 on the initiative of the RA Embassy to the RF and the NGO “Armenian-Russian Cooperation” a commemoration evening dedicated to the Armenian Genocide Centennial titled “I Remember and Demand” was held at Svetlanov Hall of Moscow International House of Music. The event was held within the framework of the programme prepared by the Pan-Russian Commission Coordinating the events dedicated to the Armenian Genocide Centennial.

The RA NA Deputy Speaker Hermine Naghdalyan, the RF Deputy Speaker Nikolay Levichev, the senators of the RF Federal Council, the deputies of the State Duma from Yedinaya Rossiya and other factions, Ambassadors accredited in Russia, the representatives of the RF Foreign Ministry, well-known figures of the Armenian community of Russia, well-acclaimed representatives of the cultural public spheres took part in the memorial-evening.

Oleg Yesayan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Armenia to Russia welcomed the attendees with opening remarks, Yezras Archbishop Nersisyan, the Spiritual Leader of the Armenian Diocese of Nor Nakhijevan and Russia of the Armenian Apostolic Church offered a prayer, after which the RA NA Deputy Speaker delivered a speech.

Hermine Naghdalyan in her word presented undeniable historical facts on the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, underlining in our days the importance of consolidation of the international civilized community in fighting against the crimes towards humanity.

“The prevention of genocide is the goal to which the whole international civilized community should seek. We, as a generation of the people who survived the genocide, feel a special responsibility in international fighting of recognition and prevention of genocides, in the issues of restoration of rights of the peoples survived the genocide and the re-establishment of the historical justice,” the RA NA Deputy Speaker noted.

Hermine Naghdalyan in her speech addressed the whole world community, calling on to commemorate the memory of 1,5 million martyrs together with the Armenians during the days of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, who even did not have cemetery in their motherland.

“We call on to respect their deed, who miraculously surviving, were scattered in the whole world and found power to continue, could live and have sons, preserving their gene and language, identity and existence in the world. We are grateful to the foreigners who endangering their lives, saved the Armenian orphans from death, being Turkicized, hunger, gave safe roof and warmth to them.
 
We also express our consolidation, who today in different parts of the world fight for identity preservation, for peace – for the secure life of their country and their sons,” Hermine Naghdalyan.

Mrs Naghdalyan addressed her word of gratitude also to the states, international, religious and public organizations, which had political courage to recognize and condemn the Armenian genocide as a crime against humanity. “We highlight the resolutions adopted by the Russian Parliament, European Parliament and other national parliaments as an assessment of a representation body, which expresses the peoples’ collective will against genocide and denialism,” the RA NA Deputy Speaker noted.

Addressing the whole mankind, the NA Deputy Speaker called on an active civil position, as the same genocide is nowadays, the policy of the genocide denial, also underlining that only together we can become the guarantee our sons’ peaceful life and peaceful co-existence of our states.

Talking about the Armenian Genocide, Nikolay Levichev, the RF State Duma Deputy Speaker, has stated that such crimes have no limitation period, and they are indelible from the pages of mankind history. “The genocide is a crime not only towards the people, its traditions and faith: it is a crime towards future, and in general, it is directed towards the development of civilization. Today, we have no right to forget that crime, as the concealment of the genocide facts opens doors for the fulfillment of other violence,” Nikolay Levichev underscored.

The Deputy Speaker of the RF State Duma has also expressed conviction that in the modern world it is necessary to work out a mechanism of inviolability against the sources of violence being spread like virus, being involved in all practical structures of the Eurasian territory at state, as well as civil society levels.

The performance “Armeniada” staged by Moscow S. Parajanov Artistic Theatre summed up the commemoration evening titled “I remember and demand” in Moscow.