AKEL denounces the Armenian genocide
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 23rd April 2019, Nicosia
24th April is the Day of remembrance and memory for the victims of the genocide committed against the Armenian people by the Young Turks in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.
All humanity, together with Armenians all over the world pay tribute to the 1.5 million victims of the genocide. AKEL, as every year, joins its voice with the international community in denouncing the horrific crime committed against the Armenian people and at the same time expresses its sincere sympathy with both the friendly people of Armenia and the Armenians of the diaspora.
More specifically, AKEL also addresses our Armenian compatriots, an integral part of the Cypriot people, who make a substantial contribution to Cypriot society and have linked their fortunes, prosperity and progress with the future of Cyprus; a future for which we have an obligation to struggle together so that a reunified homeland without divisions and barbed wires will be constructed without an occupation army, foreign military bases and facilities where all communities and religious groups will live in conditions of peace, mutual security, cooperation, mutual understanding, equality and equity.
At the same time, the non-recognition by Turkey of the crime of the Armenian genocide and the restoration of the memory of its victims creates interrelated problems and hinders the modernization and democratization of the country, which, unfortunately, behaves as a sheriff in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Cypriot people are living the consequences of Turkey’s policy, which, in promoting the anti-Cypriot plans of the American-NATO circles, invaded and illegally still occupies part of our homeland and whose unwavering target remains its domination over Cyprus.
The sorrowful anniversary of the Armenian genocide, and not just this anniversary, should be a point of reference, an example to be avoided and a pole rallying the Peoples together in the struggle against the machinations observed in international relations and which are targeting entire peoples in various parts of the world to deprivation, destruction, extinction and death to promote geostrategic interests.