Thursday, October 1 2015 09:41

In his address during the reception at the US Congress, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan extended words of gratitude to the people of the United States and the U.S. Congress for the humanitarian assistance allocated to Nagorno Karabakh over the years.

 

The press office of the Armenian President quotes Serzh Sargsyan as saying, "While being here, at the Capitol Hill, I would like to extend our words of gratitude to the people of the United States, and the U.S. Congress for the humanitarian assistance allocated to Nagorno Karabakh over the years. That assistance has been significant for the people of Artsakh both from the humanitarian and, first and foremost, moral perspective. It comes to testify, time and again, that the Nagorno Karabakh Republic has not been forgotten in its efforts to build independent and democratic state while countering the persistent provocations of Azerbaijan, which has chosen the path to perfect the tyranny. It is unambiguous that the Nagorno Karabakh people's path toward freedom, toward determination to master its fate on its own, and toward building a democratic society is irrevocable.  In this context, your continued support is indeed crucial."

 

Serzh Sargsyan also addresses words of gratitude to the U.S. Congress and to all Congressmen and Congresswomen, who have spared no efforts over years towards the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

 

"Several months ago I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It is a most compelling and articulate testimonial to the crime of genocide. Museums on crimes perpetrated against humanity convey a clear message to current and future generations: never to forget the grim chapters of history.  Still, we should not rely solely on museums and memorials. Remaining faithful to the dictum "We Remember," we must do everything possible, and the impossible, to secure a safe future for those who come after us. Hence, propagating the mission of Henry Morgenthau and his successors acquires great importance for us not only with a view of preserving memory for the future generations of Armenians and Americans, but also in the context of humanitarian education on a global scale. We should converge our efforts to keep alive the memory of the victims of the crime of genocide, to build a world free of violence. The prevention of the crime of genocide and fighting its denial is an important pivot in this pursuit.

 

I reiterate my words of gratitude addressed to the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation for their efforts to safeguard universal memory.  Eternalizing the memory of the Mets Yeghern, Shoah and other crimes of genocide, persistently presenting these horrendous episodes of human history, and sending through them important messages to the generations to come shall have a conclusive significance in keeping the world free of that crime," he said.

 

"In this respect the initiative to posthumously award the International Raoul Wallenberg Medal to Henry Morgenthau, Sr., is momentous and possesses a particular significance. I am delighted that his grandson, Mr. Robert Morgenthau, is here with us today. Mr.  Morgenthau, your grandfather was the first American to tell the world of the mass atrocities by the Young Turks against the Armenian people, qualifying them as a "campaign of race extermination".  Holding the office of the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and having witnessed the nightmare first hand, he was to subsequently write in his Ambassador Morgenthau's Story:"I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared with the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915. : For all I know this represents a new crime pursuing wholesale extermination." Subsequently this new crime that Morgenthau detailed was to be qualified as Genocide by Raphael Lemkin," Serzh Sargsyan said.