Iraq’s deputy parliamentary speaker Aram Sheikh Mohammed has refused to read the statement of the Iraqi-Armenians on the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in parliament.

We strictly condemn Iraqi deputy parliamentary speaker Aram Sheikh Mohammed’s act that prohibited MP Joseph Sleuay from reading the Iraqi-Armenians’ statement on the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Turks in parliament.

The representative of the sector (people of Iraq) whose identity has been denied and who has been subject to massacres, who has suffered because of the world’s silence, is transmitting that same venom to others.

We would like to remind that freedom of speech is a right enshrined by the Constitution, and the Iraqi parliament is the parliament of all the representatives of Iraqis, and nobody has the right to deprive a person of his or her constitutional right.

Aram Mohammed’s act is a violation of the right of the people to express themselves about the pains and the catastrophe and to condemn the Armenian Genocide, at the expense of flattering a foreign country and pursuing narrow interests.

We have the following question for Aram: How can he talk about the sufferings of his own people and demand rights after he deprived the Iraqi-Armenians of that right?

Let us add that leader of the Armenian Diocese of Iraq, Archbishop Avag Asadourian, chairman of the Central Department of Iraq Melkon Melkonian and member of the board Krikor Der-Hagopian have visited Vice-President of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki to discuss the matter. The meeting was broadcast on Iraq’s Afaqtv.

Armenian Prelacy of Iraq