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09
11, 2011
Message of the President of the Republic of Armenia on the occasion of 150th Anniversary of Fridtjof Nansen
Fridtjof Nansen’s 150th anniversary is marked this year.
Armenia could not stand apart from this memorable occasion, as destinies of hundreds of thousands Armenians are associated with the activities and the name of this famous Norwegian scientist. In our country, 2011 was declared as commemorative in honor of the famous scientist, polar explorer, diplomat, social activist and the great humanist Fridtjof Nansen.
Fridtjof Nansen is known to the international community not only as a great scientist and a Nobel prize-winner, but also as a tireless defender of the small nations, refugees, prisoners of war and people in need.
During the years of the Genocide perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the last century, when many superpowers remained idle from the fate of a whole nation drawn into a bloodbath, Nansen – an intellectual and politician living in remote Norway, could not stay indifferent to the fate of Armenian refugees. An individual, who had not had previous knowledge of Armenians and the history of Armenia, voiced in the League of Nations the issues of those emigrants who had miraculously survived the horrors of Genocide. Heading the Norwegian Delegation in the League of Nations, and afterwards assuming the office of the High Commissioner for issues of Prisoners of War, Refugees and the Homeless, he used the powers of a diplomat and invested all his abilities for the protection of the rights of Armenians in international arena, as well as for the clarification of the legal status of refugees of the Genocide and for repatriation of many of them to the Soviet Armenia.
Fridtjof Nansen linked his name to the fate of the refugees forever, thus providing a new beginning and a decent life for their generations. With the help of identity certificates known as “Nansen Passports”, hundreds of thousands of Armenians who survived from the clutches of the Genocide in 1915, became “Nansenians”, along with Russian, Greek, Jewish refugees, acquiring the right to live, work and build a new life in a country that had provided them an asylum.
Nansen did not rebound even before the Soviet “iron curtain” managing to help thousands of Armenian emigrants who had settled down in the Soviet Armenia with his help. And even under Stalin’s rule the leaders of the Soviet Armenia found a way to thank Nansen awarding him the title of the first Honorary Doctor of the Yerevan State University.
Today, on the 150th anniversary of a faithful and caring friend of Armenians, on behalf of the Armenian people and in my own name I want to bow before the memory of Nansen to merit this great citizen and the great son of the world, who in response to the lullaby of Armenian women, sounding as a prayer and a commandment to live, said, “Do you believe that a nation, in whose hearts songs and music like these are born, can ever be eliminated?”
Nansen deeply believed in the bright future of our nation and his words pronounced a century ago, were to become a prophecy for our independent state in the twenty first century: “In the history of the Armenian nation a new era is starting. After long years of sufferings, hardships and disasters of war, the intelligent and resolute Armenian nation is building its happy future, and Armenia will become a cradle that any Armenian living far away will consider as motherland.”
For the Armenian nation the name Fridtjof Nansen will remain an epitome of conscience and kindness of the world and the name of this humanist and greatest defender of human dignity will be glorified forever.
Armenia could not stand apart from this memorable occasion, as destinies of hundreds of thousands Armenians are associated with the activities and the name of this famous Norwegian scientist. In our country, 2011 was declared as commemorative in honor of the famous scientist, polar explorer, diplomat, social activist and the great humanist Fridtjof Nansen.
Fridtjof Nansen is known to the international community not only as a great scientist and a Nobel prize-winner, but also as a tireless defender of the small nations, refugees, prisoners of war and people in need.
During the years of the Genocide perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the last century, when many superpowers remained idle from the fate of a whole nation drawn into a bloodbath, Nansen – an intellectual and politician living in remote Norway, could not stay indifferent to the fate of Armenian refugees. An individual, who had not had previous knowledge of Armenians and the history of Armenia, voiced in the League of Nations the issues of those emigrants who had miraculously survived the horrors of Genocide. Heading the Norwegian Delegation in the League of Nations, and afterwards assuming the office of the High Commissioner for issues of Prisoners of War, Refugees and the Homeless, he used the powers of a diplomat and invested all his abilities for the protection of the rights of Armenians in international arena, as well as for the clarification of the legal status of refugees of the Genocide and for repatriation of many of them to the Soviet Armenia.
Fridtjof Nansen linked his name to the fate of the refugees forever, thus providing a new beginning and a decent life for their generations. With the help of identity certificates known as “Nansen Passports”, hundreds of thousands of Armenians who survived from the clutches of the Genocide in 1915, became “Nansenians”, along with Russian, Greek, Jewish refugees, acquiring the right to live, work and build a new life in a country that had provided them an asylum.
Nansen did not rebound even before the Soviet “iron curtain” managing to help thousands of Armenian emigrants who had settled down in the Soviet Armenia with his help. And even under Stalin’s rule the leaders of the Soviet Armenia found a way to thank Nansen awarding him the title of the first Honorary Doctor of the Yerevan State University.
Today, on the 150th anniversary of a faithful and caring friend of Armenians, on behalf of the Armenian people and in my own name I want to bow before the memory of Nansen to merit this great citizen and the great son of the world, who in response to the lullaby of Armenian women, sounding as a prayer and a commandment to live, said, “Do you believe that a nation, in whose hearts songs and music like these are born, can ever be eliminated?”
Nansen deeply believed in the bright future of our nation and his words pronounced a century ago, were to become a prophecy for our independent state in the twenty first century: “In the history of the Armenian nation a new era is starting. After long years of sufferings, hardships and disasters of war, the intelligent and resolute Armenian nation is building its happy future, and Armenia will become a cradle that any Armenian living far away will consider as motherland.”
For the Armenian nation the name Fridtjof Nansen will remain an epitome of conscience and kindness of the world and the name of this humanist and greatest defender of human dignity will be glorified forever.