By Levon Baronian
Each year, as Armenians around the world gather to commemorate the Armenian Genocide, we light candles and march with torches not simply to mourn our past, but to recommit ourselves to the fight for justice, security, and national survival.
This year marks the 110th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide—when the Ottoman Empire carried out a state-orchestrated campaign of annihilation against the Armenian people in their historic homeland. But the crime did not end with the murder of a people. It continued with the erasure of language, culture, territorial rights, and historical legacy. And most dangerously, the crime was never punished. It was not condemned by those with the power to stop it, nor was justice ever rendered.
That silence set a precedent. And today, our nation again stands at the edge of existential peril.
The forced displacement of the entire indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh, the complete ethnic cleansing carried out in broad daylight, and the continued psychological and territorial aggression by the Turkey-Azerbaijan tandem are not isolated incidents. They are the direct consequence of Turkey’s century-long denial and the international community’s failure to hold it accountable. The same genocidal logic that drove 1915 has re-emerged, unchecked and emboldened.
The truth is clear: so long as Turkey and Azerbaijan are allowed to deny their crimes, show no remorse, and face no consequences, they will continue to use the same playbook—this time targeting what remains of the Armenian homeland.
This is why genuine peace—true, lasting, dignified peace—cannot be achieved through concessions, silence, or fabricated normalization. Peace without justice is surrender. Reconciliation without recognition and restitution is not reconciliation at all—it is complicity.
The Republic of Armenia cannot be safe while its neighbors continue to reject its very right to exist. It cannot prosper while its past is denied, its people humiliated, and its land carved away piece by piece.
For the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not the endpoint—it is the starting point. It is the basis upon which we reaffirm our national demands, restore violated rights, and insist that justice for the past is inseparable from security for the future.
We believe that neither national dignity nor state sovereignty can be built on the foundation of historical amnesia. Denial breeds repetition. Restitution makes renewal possible.
That is why remembrance must translate into resolve.
To remember—so that it is never repeated.
To demand—so that we may endure.
To struggle—so that we may prevail.
With reverence to the 1.5 million martyrs of the Armenian Genocide.
Unyielding demand for justice.
And unwavering commitment to the full restoration of our national homeland.
