ON THE OCASSION OF PLACING THE CORNER STONE OF THE MONUMENT OF GRATITUDE DEDICATED TO ARAB-ARMENIAN FRIENDSHIP
Dear
faithful people,A joyous and remarkable day full of noble representation of friendship amongst nations has come today in the Armenian sky. In Shengavit, which carries signs of 6000 years of Armenian culture and today a suburb of Yerevan, a plaque is placed as an evidence of a monument to built in this location, dedicated to manifest the friendship of two ancient nations -Arab and Armenian- and two ancient countries - Syria and Armenia -.
Many monuments immortalizing great deeds found their place on Armenian soil. However, this particular monument is special for us since it expresses great gratitude of the Armenian nation to the noble Arab nation.
During the days of The Genocide of 1915, this honorable nation granted expatriated Armenians a refuge, cured the bleeding wounds of tortured daughters and sons of Armenia and, with an open and compassionate heart, welcomed them on Arabian land, from the fertile banks of the Euphrates to the seacoast of the Mediterranean.
This nation welcomed the remnants of the Armenians that miraculously escaped the bloody swords and scorching desert. The Armenians then revived on Arabian land enjoying its people's hospitality, trust and support and also that of the Syrian state.
Popular wisdom says: a friend in need is a friend indeed.
Yes, the Armenian nation was not left alone during the times of its greatest sorrow, when its ancestral land was savaged by the guilty Turks and turned into a graveyard of Armenian children.
During those darkest and miserable days, we felt the warmth of the Arab hand and the tenderness of the Arab heart. Today, the Armenian community in Syria lives freely in its second Motherland enjoying its religious, cultural and national rights and actively contributing to the rich and ancient Syrian culture in many ways, thus adding a new color to the already wealthy Syrian palette of colors.
Following the independence of Armenia, a new era of Syrian - Armenian friendships has began reaching new highs which were consolidated by establishing bilateral diplomatic relations between both countries.
Here and today I am glad to welcome the presence of statesmen from the friendly country Syria and delegates from the Armenian community in Syria led by His Grace Archbishop T. Knel Jerejian. I also welcome his excellency Mr. Hamed Hassan the Ambassador of Syria in Armenia and all embassy officials, who assume the cherished mission of enforcing Arabian-Armenian relations, friendship and collaboration of the two nations.
We express our particular gratitude to all of those noble philanthropists, on whose donations the monument of friendship will be build.
Let the monument be the eternal evidence of our gratitude to the friendly Arab nation and a corner-stone for the building and strengthening of the Arabian-Armenian inspired friendship and eternal deeds.
Praying to God we ask for long life and success for the venerable president of Syria, sir Bashar Al-Assad, and to guide him to work for the advancement and prosperity of Syria.
We also pray to God to bless the universe with peace and lead its nations to good intentions and exchanged fraternity.
The grace, love and peace of God be with all of us, amen.