On Wednesday 24 April 2013, after the Holy Liturgy and the Memorial Service in front of the Martyr’s Chapel, His Holiness Aram I addressed the thousands of people who had come to honour their martyrs.
The Catholicos said, “The memory of our one-and-a-half million martyrs of the 1915 Genocide, organized and implemented by Ottoman Turkey, calls us today to break our silence and demand that Turkey return all property belonging to our church, our nation and our people, including homes, lands, religious and cultural artefacts and other valuable objects, to their legal owners.” He then asked, “How can we remain silent in front of such a tragedy and injustice?”
The Catholicos then continued, “According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all international and regional covenants and instruments, and the Convention on Genocide, genocide is a crime against humanity, and its perpetrators must be punished. We have already seen the response of the international community to the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia Herzegovina..”
Referring to the Armenian case, His Holiness said, “We should adopt a three-pronged approach: historical, political and legal. Historically, the Armenian Genocide need not be proven any more. However, we should continue to identify new documents that governments open to the public for study and documentation. Politically, our institutions, Armenian Cause committees and research institutions should continue their valuable advocacy work. We should now focus on our legal claims. The Catholicosate of Cilicia owns a large number of Churches: 12 in Adana, nine in Alexandretta, six in Ayntab, 10 in Fernouz, 26 in Gurun, eight in Hadjin, 23 in Malatya, 24 in Marash, 11 in Payas, seven in Sis, 43 in Yozgat and 14 in Zeytoun. The Catholicosate of Cilicia also owns 15 Monasteries, more than a hundred schools, cultural centres, farms, shops and agricultural lands. The current list does not include the properties owned by our people. Catholicos Aram I then asked: How could Turkey believe that it could gain access to the European Union in the face of such a blatant injustice? How could it defend democracy and people’s rights? How could it speak of interreligious and intercultural dialogue when it denies the Genocide and transforms churches into mosques?
Aram I added, “Our people, the government of Armenia, our religious institutions and our political organisations should combine their efforts to demand the legal rights of our people to their confiscated properties. This is our inalienable right and the legacy we inherited from our martyrs.” His Holiness then announced that the Catholicos of All Armenians, Holy See of Etchmiadzin, and the Catholicos of Cilicia, in a joint statement, have demanded the following::
1. That Turkey recognize the Armenian Genocide
2. That Turkey compensate Armenians for all their losses in human lives and human rights
3. That Turkey return the Armenian churches, monasteries, church properties and all spiritual and cultural monuments to their rightful and legal owners, the Armenian people.”
The Catholicos concluded, “The late Catholicos Sahak was forcefully removed from his See in Cilicia; our people were massacred, subjected to all forms of violent acts, deported from their homes and deprived of their churches, schools and family properties. Therefore, as the Catholicos of Cilicia, it is my moral responsibility to demand, through political and legal channels, that Turkey return our churches and church properties. Turkey is the successor of the continuing state of the Ottoman Empire that committed the Genocide against one-and-a-half million Armenians and appropriated our properties and possessions. Therefore, Turkey is responsible for the acts of the Ottomans.”
