May the memory of the righteous be blessed.
"Be serious and keep watch; the Evil One, who is against you, goes about like a lion with an open mouth in search of food. Do not give way to him but be strong in your faith" (Peter 5:8)
Dear Armenians, this call of the Apostle Peter from a distance of 2000 years is always relevant for all those who consider themselves "Sons of Light". In a period full of trials and uncertainties for the Armenian people, especially for Artsakh, we have come together to remember our many victims of the genocide, ask for their intercession for our people, and most importantly, try to hear what they are now whispering into our spiritual ears, what the message is being conveyed to us. If we try to summarize their call, it will sound like this: "Learn from our mistakes and always be vigilant."
Even this call makes you think about those shortcomings that expose the nation to the danger of destruction - the weakening of faith, moral life, disagreement in the life of the people, dangerous credulity in the peace-loving promises of the enemy, all this is like a "crown of evil" - indifference to the fate of the country. All of the above existed before 1915 and unfortunately, nowadays they also seem to want to sprout.
Our fathers to some extent learned the lesson of genocide, understood the value of statehood, and we waged a heroic struggle for Sardarapat, Bash-Aparan, Karakilisa, Artsakh, stopping the ring of fire that was destroying the Armenian people. Naturally, evil cannot reconcile with our just struggle and successes, so it again launched its tested weapon - this is guilt in all its manifestations, making people cowardly, selfish, hedonists, indifferent to national and state issues, and only exhaustive citizens. Dividing and owning such a society becomes the easiest task. We have always been weakened not by our faith, not by our national system of values, not by our chosen ideology, but by their incomplete perception and application. We saw the bitter fruits of all this in 2020, during the war when the enemy again showed his genocidal face hidden under a mask.
Unlike 1915, today we are in a better position, we have statehood, although wounded, we have huge potential throughout the world, but we have a problem of unity, and for this our people must wake up from the slumber of destructive indifference, listen the call of the lullaby born from the pain of our people, who suffered from the genocide carried out by Turkey: “Wake up, my son, I will die for you”, is a call that also comprehends today's torchlight procession.
We do not call for a thirst for revenge, because revenge is the work of God, as the Bible says (Rom. 12:19) and sooner or later God will reward everyone according to his deeds. We ask everyone to be unanimous in national issues, it is better to be the owner of your homeland than to be a patriot, unite around our centuries-old spiritual value system and build a strong state. Again, the Bible tells us that if we are faithful in this little thing, God will give us more.
Therefore, always listening to the voice of our martyrs, we should not put our personal interests above the interests of our native statehood, we must first love each other, then our country, in this case, victory will not be long in coming.
