Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a press conference.
Justin Trudeau, in response to a question regarding the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, said that Canada had recognized the Armenian Genocide a long time ago. “The Armenian community in Canada has emphasized the importance of recognizing the Genocide in order to guarantee that it will never happen again. Canada plays an important role in decisions made throughout the world, and in helping to decrease such horrible events from happening to people. We will continue to promote its acceptance and recognition, while taking into consideration the fact that recognition is the first step in accepting and preventing new tragedies.”
Pashinyan said that recognizing the Armenian Genocide is not only an issue of the past, but also in building the future. Armenia intends to have a place in the global fight against genocide and considers its participation in preventing genocide to be important. “Recognizing the Armenian Genocide is important for our security, too. Armenia’s borders are closed on the Turkish side, and Armenia is blockaded. We spoke about the Artsakh issue. A new threat of genocide is affecting the people of Artsakh. They simply want to defend their right to life. We have spoken about freedom of speech, gender equality, children’s rights, and domestic violence. The Artsakh conflict and the Armenian Genocide stemmed from the issue of not having the right to live.”
Reporters asked about the Artsakh resolution process. Pashinyan said that he told Trudeau about the agreements he made with Aliyev. The Canadian Prime Minister said that the OSCE Minsk group is also involved in the resolution process. “We call upon you to continue the international process within the framework of the Minsk group in order to solve the problem in a way that will benefit the people of this region.”
Hripsime Jebejyan
