Aravot.am inquired from the “Heritage” party leader Raffi Hovhannisyan about what he specifically means by saying “We remember and demand” and what is his formulation when uttering the word “demand”. “I do not dare and even have the pretension to answer this question by every human being. A few weeks ago, on April 11, I appeared on the “Jerusalem Post” Israeli newspaper with an article in which I presented my views, and I think that these approaches assume firstly lawful and people-belonging Republic of Armenia, which we still fail having it. Secondly, a realistic strategic plan in partnership with Western-Armenian descendants, which is aimed at the reunification of the Armenian man and his fatherland. Today, we have hundreds of thousands of fellow countrymen of Armenian nation, who live beyond the Great Mountain – the ruins of Ani, and we should ask ourselves as to what we are doing for our countrymen. Institutional, the classic Diaspora and the Yerevan State, the official Armenia, in my opinion, are so engaged in their doings that our fellow countryman reaching one million population have been left out of the sight in Malatya, Dikranagerd, Van and other historical places …
There are small communities in Western Armenia: Turkish speaking and Kurdish speaking, there is a need for an elementary Armenian teacher, who should do this move … Therefore, I think that we should make the first step until the integrated and comprehensive solution between Armenia and Turkey, so that the Armenian man is reunited with its fatherland, let us give the chance for reunification, the right to return and this return should be towards the national family where there will be no condition that someone may resign from its present citizenship. I am a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, I have chosen the Republic of Armenia, and I am proud of it with all the pain, sufferings and mistakes. And when I go back to Western Armenia – the country of Hovakim and Khnkeni, Gaspar and Sirun, I should not lay down my citizenship, the education there should be Armenian, the communities there should be restored, the cultural heritage shall be returned to this national family, the Armenian identity should celebrate there, from the Mount of Masis to the Mount of Musa. Eventually, the issue of the border, when the official Yerevan and official Ankara are ready, they should decide in-between but the first step should be whether Turkey is ready to make a move towards the Armenian people and whether the Armenian people both in Armenia and Diaspora are ready to make a move towards its homeland. I cannot answer on behalf of everyone, I am ready, and I am ready to get to the future through the past”, replied Raffi Hovhannisyan.
According to Raffi Hovannisian, there are social movements in Turkey, young people and scientists who accept the Armenian Genocide and repent, we need to continue working with this type of people. While the official Ankara, according to him, maybe it will last years, but it should admit generated from its interest, pay reparations and restore the rights of the Armenian people. “But I should neither plead with Obama nor Putin nor moreover Erdoğan, this is our right and no one more than us has the right over the Western Armenia,” said Mr. Hovhannisyan.
According to him, the return to the homeland and our return to homeland depends only on us. “We know that what we lost hundred years ago and a few days ago were not only 1.5 million of people, it was not only a race murder, but a murder of a country – civilization, culture, churches, schools, it was a murder of a whole historic life. We may never again see the Western Armenia in our lifetime and beyond it as it was hundred years ago, I am sorry for it, but the rights that are changed – the school, the church, belonging to the land, we can gain these rights step-by-step if we are ready, but this requires having a strong, powerful and a lawful state, and we need to understand that the strongest response to April 24 comes tomorrow, the highest examination that we must take is April 25, 26, 27 …,” said Raffi Hovannisian.
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Nune AREVSHATYAN
