Artak Zakarian sends letter to Senator Robert Menendez

The Chairman of Armenia’s National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Artak Zakarian sent a letter to the Chairman of U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Robert Menendez.

In his letter, Artak Zakarian said Armenia was inspired by the news that on April 10 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee adopted a resolution on the Armenian Genocide, calling upon the Senate to commemorate the first genocide of the 20th century and encouraging the President to ensure that America’s foreign policy reflects and reinforces the lessons of that heinous crime.

“We express our gratitude to you, a longtime friend of Armenia, for all your efforts and we want to express gratitude to all the senators who voted for this important resolution.

We are also inspired by your simple, but at the same time definite and clear statement: “Genocide is genocide, and you cannot call it anything else but that and you need to have a recognition of that”. The recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. is of great significance. No doubt, it will become a new stimulus for the whole process of the Armenian Genocide recognition. It is high time,” the letter says.

Artak Zakarian stressed that the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide is approaching and a utilitarian approach to that crime’s assessment is no longer acceptable to the American people who have deep faith in such universal values as democracy, humanism and historical justice.

“We continue to hope that under your guidance, the recognition process of the Armenian Genocide that is well documented in American archives will reach its logical conclusion, foiling futile attempts to consign to oblivion this heinous crime and preventing new crimes against humanity,” the letter reads.