AZERBAIJANI DELEGATION USED ISTANBUL CONFERENCE TO RAISE ANTI-ARMENIAN HYSTERIA, TURKOLOGIST HASMIK STEPANIAN SAYS
Khachatrian Haroutiun
Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 6 2007
Armenia
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. During the "Ikanas-38" international
conference held in Turkey on September 10-15, the head of the
Azerbaijani delegation said in his speech that "Turkey is today a
powerful state, while Azerbaijan has developed economically thanks
to its oil", so it is time for both of them to "destroy Armenia",
Hasmik Stepanian, a Turkologist, research fellow of the RA Institute of
Oriental Studies – one of the two Armenian scientists who participated
in that conference – said at the October 5 press conference.
In her words, the Azerbaijanis turned this scientific event into a
political show and used the conference rostrum to voice insulting
expressions and aspersions about the Armenian people, the Armenian
state, the president of the RA, and the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk.
She said that the Turkish scientists behaved a bit more properly, even
though they supported the Azerbaijanis in every possible way, while the
latter made an attempt to prevent the Armenian scientists from making
their reports. One of the Turkish speakers stated that "there is a
state that poses a danger to Turkey’s dignity by its intrigues." It
was pointed out at the congress that the Armenian Diaspora should
change "its aggresive attitude to Turkey" for establishment of normal
Armenian-Turkish relations. All speeches contained the same idea,
according to which the essence of the Armenian question should be
revealed through examination of archives.
H. Stepanian noted that in response to this Turkish-Azerbaijani
propaganda, Armenians have only one thing to do: to tell the world
about their anti-Armenian words and deeds.