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RA National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan on April 15 awarded the Medal of Honour of RA National Assembly the member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of the Republic of Slovakia, former Speaker of the National Council of the Republic of Slovakia Pavol Hrušovský for supporting the process of the adoption and establishment of the Resolution on recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by the National Council of the Republic of Slovakia on November 30, 2004.

Handing over the higher award the NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan said:

“Dear colleagues, dear Mr. Hrušovský,

I am very glad to host you in the Armenian Parliament as decisive political figure and a man of civil distinct position.

In 2004 the Parliament of Slovakia adopted a Resolution condemning the 1915 Armenian Genocide, which was perpetrated in Ottoman Turkey, and your contribution in it is weighty as now former Speaker of the Slovak Parliament and a deserved representative of the Slovak people.

The Armenian Genocide is not only a crime against a whole nation, but also a crime against a whole humanity. And the duty of the whole civilized world and community to give just and deserved assessment to what happened. Though numerous states and structures accepted the crime perpetrated towards the Armenians in 1915 as Genocide and condemn it, however, the author of the Genocide has no courage to repent, I am sure but the time is also close because in the world the list of the countries, which are able to look straight at the truth, gradually increase, the political figures, who can stand above political and other interests and adopt a dignified position towards the fact of the Armenian Genocide. In the name of you dear Mr. Hrušovský, we know a man, who could assess the history and the reality with dignity and fairly. The step that you have taken and as its result the Resolution adopted by the Slovak Parliament is a weighty contribution to the international community, one more step to approach to the truth, to prevent the genocides in the world, in the process of awaking conscience in accepting its own crime in the perpetrated Genocide. We are grateful for revealing the truth and restoring the historical justice on the hard path of your brave and exemplary activities.”

Expressing his gratitude for being assessed and being awarded the Medal of Honour the former Speaker of the National Council of the Republic of Slovakia Pavol Hrušovský said in particular: “Everybody should consider the Genocide perpetrated against Armenians a crime against the whole humanity. We demand that those who did it, have seriousness and percept what they have done with the whole depth of disaster. I am proud that the Parliament of Slovakia had the courage and adopted the Genocide as a fact. And moreover that we should be an example for all countries, which still don’t have that courage.”

Classifying the adoption of the Resolution of the Armenian Genocide by the Slovak Parliament as a political assessment to the perpetrated genocide Pavol Hrušovský ensured that he accepts the received award a new “burden” for the fulfillment of the new obligations, which the political figures of his country must undertake on them for the sake of the solution of the Armenian issues and problems.

The NA Vice Speakers Arevik Petrosyan and Samvel Nikoyan, deputies, the NA Chief of Staff Gegham Gharibjanyan attended the award giving ceremony.