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Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia has issued a message on the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

The message, released by the PM’s office, runs as follows:

“Today, we are paying tribute to the memory of Armenian Genocide victims. One of the peculiarities of the Armenian Genocide is that the people subjected to the genocide were not only physically destroyed, but also deprived of the right to live in their homeland.

We were consistently deprived of the land on which Armenian culture and Armenian identity were formed and developed over thousands of years. The cultural heritage that constitutes the Armenian identity – thousands of schools, churches and monasteries – was erased from the face of the earth.

The carriers of the essence of the Armenian culture – intelligentsia and clergy – were annihilated. It was a huge blow not only to the Armenian people, its culture and its cultural type, but also to the human civilization, as whole.

A unique and peculiar layer that was part of the global culture is irreversibly lost. The genocides of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians irrevocably changed the cultural image of the whole region. Was this not a crime against humanity?

The perpetrators killed our poets, those who constituted our conscience, the basis of our identity. Therefore, we must consistently struggle to preserve our essence, our species. If we commit to oblivion their memory, if we forget about their cultural heritage, we will betray our essence.

By keeping their memory alive and fighting for justice, we will gain immortality. Therefore, we will be consistent in promoting the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.”