Let’s talk in terms of values

Editorial

Yerkir
April 29, 2005

On different occasions one may hear the questions of whether Armenia
can normally develop without normalizing relations with Turkey and
Azerbaijan or whether it is not in Armenia’s interests to have good
relations with these countries.

Of course, any country will be more secure with friendly
relations with neighbors. But these relations should be based on
certain principles. It is not correct to oppose territorial or
property-demanding norms to good relations.

Each country has its national values, its history which serves as
basis for existence to the country. The Roman proverb says: “Those
who look at their history with negligence are doomed to look at the
future with fear and doubt.”

What is the price of those good relations? If the price includes our
national dignity, loss of motherland, and if we pay a price that will
turn us into a group of biological units carrying their existence,
then what is the worth of living on this land at all?

We can all go to more prosperous countries live on better conditions
there. What is the point of preserving the Armenian statehood, if we
do not have certain goals and principles?

And when our neighbors demand that we lose all that and condition it
for good relations, we say that we refuse to live as slaves. We want
to have equal relations, based on justice. The Armenian nation has
undergone a historical injustice and this injustice is recognized by
the whole world. The current process of the Genocide recognition proves
that the actual civilization recognizes the right of Armenian nation.

Let the Turks and Azerbaijanis think of being interested having
good relations with us, a nation that has suffered greatly from
them. Moreover that Armenia has announced to be ready to start
diplomatic relation without any pre-conditions. Turkey, in turn, sets
its conditions for regulating relationships, referring to relations
with a third country, which really violates our rights.

We must admit that each union, especially the one called a nation has
its values. The history does not know a nation without a values system,
a system that enables it preserve its existence. On the other hand,
the history has many examples of nations being destroyed for losing
their own values.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress