Ottawa, ON – The Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, released the following statement on Armenian Genocide Memorial Day:
“Today, we pause to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the Medz Yeghern—the Armenian Genocide. With deep sadness, we remember the 1.5 million innocent Armenians who were systematically forced from their homes and marched to their deaths by Ottoman authorities in 1915.
“Though the world failed to heed the warnings at the time, we now know that the Ottoman Empire launched a deliberate campaign aimed at ethnically cleansing and exterminating the Armenian people.
“Yet shamefully, more than a century later, we have failed to learn from the painful lessons of the Armenian Genocide. Today, the Armenian people continue to suffer. Over the last several years, more than 100,000 Armenians, including women, children, and the elderly, have been targeted and displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Armenians have a right to exist and live in security, in their ancestral homeland. On this anniversary, we mourn the innocent lives who were unjustly murdered in the 20th century and in the present day, and call for long overdue justice for the Armenian people.
“Just like the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, we know that the Armenian people will endure, and their spirit will once again triumph over the genocidal impulse that has sought to destroy them. It is incumbent on all freedom-loving nations to stand with them and ensure that these crimes are never again repeated.”