|
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News
ARMENIAN REPRESENTATIVE REMINDS U.N. OF ASSYRIANS’ PLIGHT
Nov 9
(ZNDA: New York) Sprearheaded by General Secretary Kofi Anan of the United Nations, the UN General Assembly met in New York on November 8 and 9 to debate on Dialogue Among Civiliziations. The proposal for this project came a few years ago from President Mohammad Khatami of Iraq in an effort to promote interchange and understanding among peoples and coexistence among cultures and religions.
The representative of Armenia, Mr. Movses Abelian, on the first day of meeting said that the international community must respect the right to cultural self-determination just as it did the right to political self-determination. There were small ethnic groups in today's world which despite their modest demographics were living heirs of great past civilizations. Such ethnic and religious groups must be regarded as the cultural heritage of all mankind. Calling others "inferiors," "barbarians" or "infidels" was a sign of cultural insularity -- fertile soil for ethnic and religious intolerance -- and far too often manifested itself in acts of violence and terrorism. In his reference to these small ethnic groups the Armenian representative used Assyrians as an example.
The following is an excerpt from Mr. Abelian’s speech addressed to the General Assembly:
“There is a growing understanding of the fact that the human race could no longer be weakened by cultural, religious and ideological differences. These differences must be turned instead into an inexhaustible source of strength and inspiration. A dialogue among civilizations was both a sign of mankind's maturity, and an instrument of its progress, he said. In today's world more and more people had begun to realize that they belonged to more than one civilization. Multiculturalism had become a reality, and it could grow to become a universal standard for cultural self-identification in the present century.
This process must not be artificially accelerated or enforced. The unfortunate reality was that each decade several mini-cultures and micro-civilizations vanished from the face of the planet, even in the remote and hardly accessible regions. This could not be perceived as a necessary and unavoidable sacrifice on the altar of globalization.
The international community must respect the right to cultural self-determination in the same manner as the right to political self-determination. There are small ethnic groups in today's world which, despite their modest demographics, are living heirs of great past civilizations. Many of them are forgotten and neglected, some are endangered in their own homelands, such as the Assyrians, who kept alive the Aramaic tongue of Jesus Christ. Such ethnic and religious groups must be regarded as the cultural heritage of all mankind, with special approach to their needs and aspirations.
There is opposition to the dialogue of completely different kind. It feeds on the notion of cultural superiority. Calling others "inferiors", "barbarians" or "infidels" was a sign of cultural insularity, which provided fertile soil for ethnic and religious intolerance, and far too often manifested itself in acts of violence and terrorism.”
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives