Romanian Ambassador Sorin Vasile.
Romanian Ambassador Sorin Vasile, who made derogatory comments regarding religious and sexual minorities during a lecture at the American University of Armenia while attempting to answer a question about the morality of recognizing the Armenian Genocide has been summoned to Bucharest. CivilNet spoke with a representative of the Romanian Foreign Ministry in Bucharest who confirmed the news.
On December 3, CivilNet published an article by Guillaume de Chazournes about the remarks made by the Romanian Ambassador.
The article explained in detail what took place at the November 19 lecture, where Ambassador Vasile was asked to speak about Armenian-Romanian relations and answer questions from the audience. When an Armenian student stood up and asked him what was more important for Romania — political and economic ties with Turkey or the moral imperative of recognizing the Armenian Genocide, the Ambassador provided several examples. Below we present two of his responses verbatim:
“…[T]alking about the events that happened in the beginning of the last century, it’s very complicated…which is the morality? To recognize ok…This is a morality. Which is the morality between the normal couple…The hermaphrodite couple…yes? No, not hermaphrodite. Homosexuals and the normal…men and women, yeah? They are ok..? They are normal, they are moral. And the homosexuals are moral or? So, which is the same with…you know everything is relative you know. This is the answer to your question. For you, it’s controversial. For the gay couple, for them it’s perfect, this is the model of the family, yeah? Gay.”
“Now everything is relative, it’s quite complicated. This is not the mathematic; you know the policy, the strategy, the geopolitics. You don’t have 1 + 1. You know there’s actually a good joke with the Jew[s]…the Jew, the big businessman, is looking for an accountant in his company and the first guy who is the candidate, yes, saying listen..how is 10 + 10, he’s saying 20! No you’re not good, out. The second one, 10 + 10 and he says 30. No you are not good, go out. And the third one comes: how is 10 + 10 and he’s saying, the candidate is saying, ‘how much you want it to be?’ Ok you’ll work, you’re hired, you’ll work for me. This is not… mathematics to say 1+1 is 2. …Next year will be the 100 years of commemoration….I’m not saying who is right, who is not right because I don’t have the right to say you know, but..it’s quite complicated.”
Following the publication of that article, Ambassador Sorin Vasile issued the following statement to CivilNet:
“In connection with the article published on Civilnet on 4 December, about my conference to the American University, I want to convey my heartfelt regret that my remarks on the tragic events that caused infinite suffering to the Armenian people at the beginning of the past century have come to cause, beyond any remote intentionality, some offense to the Armenian people. It is with deep regret that I take how my comments to a question were interpreted. I am profoundly sorry for any unfortunate misunderstanding that may have any potential bearing on the solid traditional relations between the Romanian and Armenian peoples, built in centuries on mutual support and trust.
It may be the case that some of my remarks have been considered misplaced and if so the case I am deeply sorry for it.
I firmly underline that Armenia has a friend in me. I hold the genuine trust that my activities involving both the local authorities and the Armenian public at large, my statements and interviews testify to the highest consideration that I have for Armenia as a country with a great and rich history and for its future.”
Sorin VasileAmbassador of Romania to the Republic of Armenia
