THE VITAL INTERESTS OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE REQUIRE 
THE REJECTION OF THE PROTOCOLS BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY

On August 31, the governments of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey, under the auspices of Switzerland, agreed to submit for internal political consultations a “protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations” and a “protocol on the development of bilateral relations,” followed by their signature and ratification.

These protocols affect the future of the Armenian people as a whole, including that of the Diaspora. This Diaspora not being represented as such, neither by the representatives of the Republic of Armenia nor by those of the States of which its members are citizens, our duty commands us imperatively to react by means of this petition, which is open to the signatures of all who uphold human dignity.

We take exception in advance to any initiative that would attempt to interpret this reaction as one directed against the Republic of Armenia, specifying that, quite to the contrary, it seeks to defend the vital interests and fundamental rights of the Armenian people.

Under these conditions, the signers of this petition,

• Recalling that the conception they have of Armenia exceeds that which is limited to the Republic of Armenia and its territory,

• Subsequently recalling that the authorities of the Republic of Armenia are not authorized to decide all questions that concern the entire Armenian people, notably that of the Genocide of 1915, of which heritage the Diaspora remains a depository,

• Recalling that to submit such a unique experience as genocide to negotiations and a judgment by governmental commissions or sub-commissions would subordinate the truth to political maneuvers and power relations,

• Reaffirming the universal consensus that has arisen from the experience of the Genocide of the Jews, a consensus that condemns denialist undertakings and stipulates that a genocide cannot be legitimately studied except by those who have already recognized it,

• Considering therefore that, by the signing of these protocols, Armenia marginalizes the Diaspora, and enters into the strategy of the Turkish State to divide the Armenian people and to stigmatize and delegitimize the Diaspora for advocating the consciousness of the Genocide,

• Considering that this signing was imposed by those who would like to see the Armenian State build itself up by disowning a part of the Armenian people,

1. Consequently reject these protocols as an effort of the Turkish State to impose on the economically vulnerable Republic of Armenia its distorted  vision of history from which the Republic of Turkey was formed and which is consubstantial with it,

1. Call upon the Diaspora to reaffirm and strengthen its identity as  holder of the memory of the Genocide of the Armenians by means of a project developed independently in critical dialogue with the authorities of the Republic of Armenia,

1. Call upon all those who uphold human dignity to express their rejection of these agreements which endanger the integrity of the Armenian people.