CAUSE OF DEADLOCKED SITUATION IN ANOTHER, VAHAN HOVANISYAN’S POINT OF VIEW

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 19 2007

The deputy speaker of the National Assembly Vahan Hovanisyan,
presidential candidate from the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, addressed the
parliamentary hearings on the Armenian and Turkish relations on
December 19. He said the situation with the Armenian and Turkish
relations is complicated and deadlocked, and he would like to view
this situation from another point of view.

The other aspect, according to Vahan Hovanisyan is that there is
no precondition to this story when democracies and dictatorships
cooperate, and a harmonious relation is established between them. "I
would not say, I am far from thinking that Armenia is a classical
democratic country. But when we watch Turkey we understand that if we
had studied carefully and tried not to be cheated by slogans we hear
from politicians, we understand that Turkey is a classic example of
dictatorship, totalitarianism," Vahan Hovanisyan says.

According to him, we should not be guided by the Soviet definition of
a dictatorship, which is the dictate of an individual. "The reality
is different. Dictatorship differs from democracy because it controls
not only the present but also the past. It is not accidental that in
one of the best novels, the society in Orwell’s novel had a ministry
of truth which changed the textbooks and the entire history whenever
the situation changed. In Turkey they are trying to control the past,"
Vahan Hovanisyan says.

According to him, this is the reason why a harmonious relation between
Turkey and Armenia is ruled out. Vahan Hovanisyan says as long as the
thinking of the society has not changed in Turkey, it is unrealistic
to expect a change of the Armenian and Turkish relation.

Vahan Hovanisyan called on Armenia to cooperate with the Turkish
government. "We must break the wall built by the Turkish government,
and understand that we will be able to reach agreement only after
the dictatorship is replaced by democracy," Vahan Hovanisyan says.