ARTUR BAGHDASARYAN: HEALTHY COMPROMISE IS MORE USEFUL THAN ANY ENMITY

Yerevan, December 18. ArmInfo. A complementary policy of Armenia is
mostly a derivation from the Karabakh problem suspense, leader of the
"Orinats Yerkir" party, ex-speaker of RA Parliament, Artur Bahdasaryan,
said in an interview to ArmInfo.

According to him, this foreign political thesis has proved itself,
it played a definite favorable role, however, it started to become
outdated and no one in the world perceives it seriously today. The
critical mass of complementarism is exhausted, he said and added it
is necessary to seek for the new ideas concordant with the situation
and the time. Compromises in the Karabakh issues must be searched
as well, the ex-speaker said. "The extreme ideas are unacceptable,
since the future is always more important despite the hard way,
passed by our people. For the same reason, the recognition of Genocide
should not be a cornerstone of the foreign policy as well. Well, let’s
suppose some countries more recognize the Genocide. What is next? We
bow to the memory of the Genocide victims, this fact is unofficially
recognized by the whole world community. But what we receive, carrying
it as a standard over the head? A moral satisfaction? And where is
the real policy then? The Genocide issue can be only a component of
the foreign policy to be elaborated. We have to build our foreign
policy counting on the future, for the sake of our children. Look,
the Germans had forced the whole Europe to its knees some 60 years
ago, killed the millions of people, destroyed London by bombing,
razed Warsaw to the ground. But now the Great Britain, France and
Germany are building the European Union and Poland has also joined
them. This is an example of a real policy based on democracy. Today,
Turkey makes its way towards Europe and we also have to go there and
talk to it", A. Baghdasaryan said.

He also underlined he normally treats the nationalistic ideas in the
Armenian society. However, these ideas should not dominate since they
start to prevail, the society falls into an atmosphere of extremism,
with elements and properties, typical for such a society. "Therefore,
we have to sooner realize that our neighbors are our rivals but not
enemies. It is important in so far as the most of the countries of
the region, we are in, has a clearly expressed task of integration
into the European structures, into a civilized family. They do go in
this direction. Meanwhile, we isolate ourselves instead of seeking
for the new approaches with respect to the two important players,
Turkey and Azerbaijan", A. Baghdasaryan said.

"We have to understand that if Turkey strives today after the
European Union, we, showing a flexibility, have to sit at the Table
of negotiations with Turks and try to find mutually acceptable
decisions. And what is of most importance, and we see it well, the
Turkish train has already started and keeps on moving towards Europe.

The train moves heavily, with artificial barriers on the way, but it
moves. That’s why we should not prevent each other from developing
by putting spokes in the wheels of the European locomotive but,
on the contrary, should try to do out best to put our locomotive on
this track. Armenia may play a key role in this integration; having
very tensed relations with 2 of its 4 neighbors Armenia must display
foresight and diplomatic tolerance so as to show its competitiveness
based on democratic values.

"We have no oil, we are not a country with 60 mln population. That’s
why we should use the chance we have – the chance to appear in the
world as a freely developing and truly democratic state. As regards
the sore subject if our relations with neighbors, healthy compromise
is certainly more important and useful that stubborn head-on enmity.

We should understand that the key geopolitical processes developing
in the region are incompatible with our current policy.", Artur
Baghdasaryan said.