At a global forum in the Armenian capital of Yerevan on Thursday, Syria expressed its condemnation of the Armenian genocide carried out by the Ottoman Turks a hundred years ago.
The forum, titled “Against the Crime of Genocide”, was held in the Armenian capital Yerevan to commemorate the centennial of the genocide, marked on April 24.
Speaker of the Syrian People’s Assembly Mohammad Jihad al-Laham said history will not forgive those “who did not learn the lessons of wars on other peoples”.
The Turkish government has thrust itself deeply into the Syrian crisis, opening its lands to terrorists from all corners of the world who hope to cross its border into Syria.
“Any crime against humans must be condemned and rejected, whoever the perpetrator, and if that crime was a genocide in which more than a million and a half of the brotherly Armenian people were killed,” Laham told the forum.
“We in Syria have always felt the Armenians’ sense of belonging is as much to Syria as it is to Armenia and vice versa,” he said, affirming that the Armenians in Syria are an integral part of its society.
Laham drew parallels between the Armenian genocide and the mass crimes targeting people in Syria and Iraq, claiming the crimes – systematically committed by terrorists in both countries – are aimed at cleansing areas of their inhabitants.
Coupled with the destruction of archeological sites in Syria and Iraq, these actions constitute “a genocide against humanity” and crimes against history and culture, he added.
Stressing that the history of appalling criminality is repeating itself now through terrorism, Laham blamed state-supported terrorism targeting Syria through funding, arming, training and political and media cover to commit crimes.
