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Nalbandyan Recalled Destruction of Armenian Churches in 1990-2000

lragir.am2 hours ago
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Nalbandyan Recalled Destruction of Armenian Churches in 1990-2000

Statement by Edward Nalbandian at the Conference Preventing and Countering Hate Crimes against Christians and Members of other Religious Groups - Perspectives from the OSCE and beyond Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to warmly welcome all participants of the conference and thank the OSCE Austrian Chairmanship and the ODIHR for its organization in cooperation with Armenia. The theme and the focus of the Conference are timely and well-chosen providing an ample opportunity for addressing the challenges faced by Christians and members of other religious groups. Several reasons contribute to the importance of this Conference for Armenia. First, historically being situated on the crossroads of different civilizations Armenia has cultivated deeply rooted traditions of coexistence and respect towards other cultures and religions. Being the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion, Armenians stand among the foundations of the Christian civilization. We always have had very strong relations with Muslim nations and states, as well as with others. As a nation that has communities in around hundred countries of the World Armenians have first-hand knowledge on the value of tolerance and on the problems of discrimination and hate speech. We consider this Conference in Yerevan as an opportunity for presenting and sharing our national experiences. Second, being historically persecuted in their homeland under foreign domination, including based on the religious grounds, after rejoining the family of sovereign states Armenians cannot close eyes to the sufferings of those who continue to experience religious discrimination and hate-motivated crimes. We actively contribute to the international efforts aimed at preventing identity based discrimination and violence. Our most recent initiatives in this regard include the adoption of the resolution on Genocide prevention at the UN Human Rights Council in 2015 and the adoption in the same year of the resolution on International Day of commemoration of the victims of genocide at the UN General Assembly. These efforts will continue. Countering hate speech, intolerance and xenophobia was one of the main priorities of Armenia during its Chairmanship of the Council of Europe in 2013. At the wake of terrorist activities of Daesh and other terrorist groups, Armenia has been among the first in the United Nations and the OSCE to raise the issue of protection of religious and ethnic groups and strongly advocate for the strengthening of the international commitments in this regard. Third, the hosting of this Conference in Armenia is a further step in our efforts to raise awareness on the plight of endangered religious groups. I recall the two high level events on "Supporting the Rights of Christians, particularly in the Middle East" and on “Mutual Respect and Peaceful Coexistence as a Condition of Interreligious Peace and Stability: Supporting Christians and other Communities”, held respectively in 2015 and 2017 in Geneva in the frameworks of the UN Human Rights Council, co-organized by Armenia, Russia, Holy See and Lebanon alongside with other partner countries. We have also supported the initiatives of on streamlining issue of protection of religious and ethnic groups in the Middle East. Armenia contributed to the International Conference on the Victims of Ethnic and Religious Violence in the Middle East, in Paris in 2015 and the Conference on victims of ethnic and religious violence, in Madrid this June. Armenia has also focused on the plight of refugees and migrants from the vulnerable groups of the Middle East during such recent international events as the 2016 UN Summit to Address Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants, 2016 Leaders' Summit on Refugees, 2017 OSCE Mediterranean conference on large movements of migrants and refugees. Ladies and Gentlemen, There is no doubt that all those conferences and discussions that I have mentioned and many others to which Armenia has actively contributed are of great importance. Their aim is to set up and improve the mechanisms and bring us closer to the implementation of our obligations. In the OSCE alone we have developed a broad range of commitments to combat racism, xenophobia, discrimination, anti-Semitism and intolerance, including against Christians, Jews, Muslims, other religious groups and to prevent and respond to hate crimes. There is a consensus among participating states that adherence to these commitments is crucial for the maintenance of peace, stability and security. Thus, it is high time now to ensure that the OSCE possess effective mechanisms and expertise to assist participating States in taking appropriate action to protect Christians and members of other religions. I would like to bring one example in this regard. The Cracow Document endorsed by the 1994 OSCE Budapest Summit stipulates that “the participating States will pay due attention to monuments and objects of religious origin whose original communities no longer use them or no longer exist in the particular region.” Numerous Armenian churches, monasteries, cemeteries destroyed, erased, confiscated and appropriated in the 1990s and 2000s in the places from where the indigenous Armenian population has been expelled stand as a stark reminder of the cleavages between the commitments and their implementation. Such situations should not be permitted. Recent international reports draw a quite appalling picture with regard to the religious freedom in the world. According to one of them nearly 80 percent of the humanity lives in places where restrictions on religion are either “high” or “very high.” According to others reports about the deterioration of the situation in this regard, including in some OSCE participating states that are in the immediate neighborhood of Armenia. In these countries the areas of particular concern are the rising numbers of the prisoners of conscience, dissemination of the hatred, especially through the media and education. There is a certain tendency in the OSCE area among those participating states whose non-compliance with the OSCE human dimension commitments particularly with respect to the fundamental freedoms is well known, to disguise human rights violations by depicting themselves as islands of tolerance and non-discrimination or even best examples to be followed by others. Portraying themselves multicultural, multireligious in one organization, seeking religious solidarity in other organization and finally nurturing own population by hatred as a substitute to human rights may work only as a short-term propaganda but will certainly undermine stability and security in the region. Unfortunately, religious dimension has often been invoked to mobilize support in the conflict situations that have never had anything to do with the faith. Some organizations, which are based on religious solidarity, support these claims potentially exacerbating already complex conflict situatio...

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