Speehes given by Dr. Rostom Stepanian and HG Bishop Nathan Hovhannisyan at the Welsh National Assembly
Key Short Word by - Dr Rostom Stepanian - Chair, Campaign for Recognition of the Armenian Genocide - Wednesday, 30 October 2002
Your Excellencie(s), Grace(s), Honourable Assembly Members, Friends:
It is both a privilege and a pleasure for me to stand here before you today in the Committee Room of the National Assembly for Wales. In one sense, this shared event between the Welsh and Armenian peoples is yet another station - perhaps even another milestone - in the historical chapter of the Armenian Genocide.
Last May, during the Short Debate that took place in this very Assembly on the theme of 'The Armenian Community in Wales and Genocide in Turkey', some of your estimable Assembly Members across different parties spoke movingly about the Armenian people and their many uncomfortable collisions with the vagaries of time. Assembly Member Cynog Dafis indicated in his intervention the importance of the Statement of Opinion, tabled in March 2000, whose purpose in part was to acknowledge the true nature of the genocide. He added, 'If a majority of Assembly members signed, that would be as good as a majority resolution following a debate'. Another Assembly Member, Carwyn Jones, averred that he 'cannot ignore the fact that there is strong evidence to suggest that such massacre or genocide took place'. He added that he 'cannot ignore the fact that so many national and regional parliaments, including those of France, Belgium, Sweden and the European Parliament, have taken the same view'.
Indeed, we come together today to show our appreciation as an Armenian community in Wales and elsewhere that a majority of signatures has indeed been attained for the Statement of Opinion. But again, and to quote Assembly Member Jenny Randerson, 'We must work together within the Assembly and throughout society to ensure that this massacre, this genocide, is fully recognised, because recognition and commemoration are the vital steps to ensure that it never happens again'.
With this Statement of Opinion, I - as Chair of the Campaign for Recognition of the Armenian Genocide - believe that Wales has led the way. It has even pointed the way. It is both a gesture and an affirmation that would boost the campaign in Wales and beyond. It would strengthen relations between Wales and Armenia for the good of both sides. It would underline the affinity between the Welsh and Armenian peoples here and across the whole country.
With this event today, Wales has articulated its opinion on a matter of profound moral significance for the whole United Kingdom. It has remembered the massacres perpetrated against Armenians and has insisted that history should not deny them the acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide.
However, this Statement of Opinion has also made us Armenians realise that the road ahead is long and challenging. It is fraught with difficulties and disappointments as much as with achievements and successes. Yet, I remain confident that with your help and support, as much as those of other friends and supporters, the truth will eventually prevail so that the world community will no longer shy away from recognition of an event that has rent the moral fabric of humanity during the First World War as much as touched almost every Armenian family - man, woman and child - across the whole world.
Welsh National Assembly Regional Delivery by HG Bishop Nathan Hovhannisyan - Primate of the Armenian Orthodox Church - Wednesday, 30 October 2002
Your Excellencie(s), Grace(s), Honourable Assembly Members, Friends:
Let me start off by conveying to you all today the convivial and ecumenical greetings of His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, whose Holy See is at Etchmiadzin in Armenia. His message of greetings to the Assembly Members arrived at our Bishopric in London early this morning. They are blended with profound appreciation for the leading yet gentle role undertaken by the Churches as well as politicians of Wales in acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. They carry with them the prayerful support of the Armenian Church from its source in Armenia.
In fact, if one were to look eastward from the Holy See of Etchmiadzin on any clear day, one spots Mount Ararat, a towering snow-capped mountain that is one of the inspiring symbols of Armenian national aspirations. However, this very national symbol also carries with it a large degree of pain for most Armenians. During the genocide of 1915, many Armenian children, men and women living in the valleys surrounding the Ararat region had to flee as a result of the massacres perpetrated against them.
What Armenians across the world have been demanding for decades is not impossible to achieve by men and women of good faith and good will. Recognition of this woeful chapter in Armenian history will at least give Armenians the meagre solace that the violent deaths of their relatives during this tragic period did not occur in vain. Indeed, recognition is tantamount to a purification of memory and a liberation of truth and justice over untruth and injustice so that their cleansing effect would heal the collective wounds of the past and ultimately lead toward forgiveness.
Today, I pray that the Statement of Opinion signed by a majority of the Members of the National Assembly in Wales will play a prophetic role toward encouraging recognition and reconciliation whereby amity could replace animosity. For this reason, I propose to institute a once-yearly Divine Liturgy to be celebrated in Wales. It is my hope that this annual celebration of the Mystery of the Word of God will become another point of encounter for the Armenian and Welsh peoples in Wales.
Once again, in the name of His Holiness Karekin II, the Armenian Community and Church Council of Great Britain as well as myself, I thank you all for your presence here with us today.
May God Bless you all. Amen.