Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament of Uruguay, Chairman of the MERCOSUR Parliament, supporter of the Armenian Cause Ruben Martinez Uelmon has received a letter from Turkish Ambassador to Argentina and Uruguay Taner Garagasen regarding the content of the message that Prime Minister Erdogan sent to all Armenians and the international community on the occasion of the 99^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in which Erdogan had expressed his “condolence” to the inheritors of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

Upon receiving consent from Deputy Uelmon, the Armenian National Committee of Uruguay sent a response letter to the Turkish Ambassador Taner Garagasen, in which it said the following:

“To Turkish Embassy

Mr. Ambassador Taner Caracas

Greetings,

I would like to express gratitude for the letter that you sent in regard to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan’s April 24th message, which I was aware of since it was a message to the international community.

I consider it my duty to inform you that since 1965, the Eastern Republic of Uruguay has unconditionally recognized the Armenian Genocide by Resolution 13326 of 20 April 1965, after which my country became the first in the international family to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.

On the same day of that address, the Parliament of Uruguay held an event dedicated to the 99^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which was attended by representatives of all the political parties in my country who conveyed their messages on the occasion.

Recently, on November 4, 2011, the Parliament of Uruguay passed a law on the basis of Article 205 of Resolution N 18 834 by which it assigned the Ministry of Education and Culture to build an Armenian Genocide Museum with the purpose of disseminating Armenian culture and gathering information about Armenian migrants.

All those provisions have been unanimously adopted by all state bodies of Uruguay, without any objections.

According to its tradition, Uruguay stays true to protect human rights, and for us, only through recognition and reparation can pave the way for reconciliation.

Uruguay is a young country. Nevertheless, there are migrants who have come to our country with the aspiration to refrain from hatred and other negative phenomena, and it’s safe to say that we have come a long way to protect freedom of speech and the modern democratic system on the road to peace and the protection of human rights.

Thus, without going into detail and analyzing Prime Minister Erdogan’s speech in which I see many discrepancies, I must express the solidarity of us Uruguayans toward the Armenian martyrs/

Uruguay is a country of principles and it continues with those principles simply because we want the world to recognize us like that and because we stay clung to the sincere principles. Our national hero José Articas would say ��?In freedom I won’t insult anyone or be afraid of everyone’. 

 It was a pleasure for me to receive your letter and the message of the Prime Minister of your country attached to it.

I convey my Greetings to you and wish you success in your important misión.

Sincerely,

Ruben Martinez Uelmon

National Deputy

-This was the response letter that the respected friend of the Armenian people, Deputy of the Parliament of Uruguay sent to the Turkish Ambassador to Argentina and Uruguay.

ARF-D Armenian National Committee of Uruguay