Honoring the memory of the martyrs of the Armenian genocide

 

 AKEL C.C Press Office, 23rd April 2014, Nicosia

 

The whole of humanity, together with Armenians all over the world, honour every year on 24th April the memory of 1.5 million Armenian victims of genocide committed against the Armenian people by the “Young Turks” during the First World War.

AKEL condemns once again in the strongest possible terms the heinous crime against the Armenian people and expresses its sympathy to the friendly people of Armenia, the Armenian community of Cyprus and the Armenian diaspora. AKEL sends warm greetings to our Armenian compatriots, expressing at the same time its appreciation for the great contribution of the Armenian community to the progress and prosperity of Cyprus. In conditions of economic crisis and recessionary policies and policies driving the people to poverty which are being imposed by the government and the Troika in our country, solidarity among the communities and religious groups in our country is more than ever imperative.

Turkey’s refusal to recognize the crime of the genocide against the Armenian people makes this one of the most tragic and dark pages in world history. Turkey cannot march on the path of modernization and democratization without recognizing this mass crime, thereby restoring the memory of the victims and the Armenian people as a whole. All the more so, Turkey cannot continue its inflexible and uncompromising stance towards the crime that was committed against our country in 1974. The international community must put pressure on Ankara to finally proceed to a sincere effort to solve the Cyprus problem. As AKEL, we will persevere until the end in the just cause of the struggle of the Cypriot people as a whole for liberation and reunification.