OSKANIAN STATES THAT PART OF ORDINARY CITIZENS OF ARMENIA HAVE SENSE OF POWERLESSNESS

Noyan Tapan
Mar 15 2007

GENEVA, MARCH 15, NOYAN TAPAN. On March 13, RA Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian made a speech a the UN Human Rights Council.

The Minister, in particualr, regretted to say that the human rights
record in our whole region during the past fifteen years is nothing
to be envied. "It is a case study in how human rights abuses lead
to conflict and how conflicts heighten human rights abuses. From
pogroms to ethnic cleansing, from destruction of spiritual markers
to vilification of ethnic groups, we have lived through the worst
that man can do to man," he said.

The Minister stated that it is an entangled web of human rights
abuses of varied scope, nature and depth that has brought our region
to this situation.

First, there is the total disrespect of the cultural values of
other people.

Five thousand Armenian monuments have been destroyed by the Azerbaijani
government in the region of Nakhichevan in the past few years, simply
to eliminate the trace of a whole nation from that territory.

Second, there is the violation of the right of people to
self-determination.

In the waning days of the USSR, the people of Nagorno Karabakh opted
for self-determination. The Azerbaijani authorities decided to attack
their own citizens to suppress those calls. "And by doing so, they
lost the political and moral right to govern people they considered
their own citizens," Oskanian stated.

The third phenomenon, in Oskanian’s words, is the negative consequences
of the double denialism of the Turkish government. The denial of the
right of their own people to freely discuss and debate their common
past with Armenians, and the denial to both Armenians and Turks to
forge a common future, by keeping borders closed. Hrant Dink, the
Turkish-Armenian journalist who fell victim to an assassin’s bullet,
was the embodiment of both Turkishness and Armenianness. Hrant Dink
had two missions in his life – to break all taboos within his own
society, Turkish society, and to forge a dialog between Turks and
Armenians to reach understanding and reconciliation. "Indeed, that’s
exactly what we want today," Oskanian said.

Speaking about Armenia’s commitment to human rights and democracy,
Oskanian said that in our 16th year of independence, our people will
be going to the polls to elect a parliament whose powers the people
chose to enhance, to invest them with broad authorities for social
and economic advances. The task of our next government is clear:
to stay the course and more aggressively promote human rights,
alleviate poverty and build effective governing institutions, to
enable our society to embrace democracy individually and collectively.

In the Minister’s words, the cruelties inherent in the process of
massive economic readjustment that we have been undergoing have led
to a sense of powerlessness on the part of ordinary citizens. "As a
consequence, they are cynical about the value of expressing their
voice. This means we must work harder to strengthen democratic
institutions and processes, including elections," Oskanian stated.