French Minister of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir will visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today to pay tribute to the memory of the 1.5 million victims.
“The first genocide of the 20th century should never be forgotten,” Harlem Desir told reporters.
“It’s now 15 years since the upper and lower houses of the French Parliament unianimously recognized the Armenian Genocide. We now have to work to have the Armenian Genocide recognized by all humanity,” he added.
According to the Minister, it’s impossible to create the future without properly assessing the painful events of the past, without recognizing that inhumane pain, and without reconciliation.
Speaking about the Karabakh issue, the Minister said he has brought a message to Armenia. He stressed the need to resume talks in order to escape escalation of violence. “We must combine efforts to be able to create a lasting, stable peace in the region based on most important and basic principles.”
Harlem Desir will call for reconciliation will be the main emphasis of his meetings in Yerevan and Baku. He also stressed the importance of development of confidence-building measures, investigation of border incidents, use of technical means at the line of contact.
“We cannot speak of a frozen conflict, when we have losses among the civilian population and military,” Desir said, emphasizing the importance of resumption of the negotiation process.
