ARMEN RUSTAMIAN: "ESTABLISHMENT OF RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA DOES NOT FIT IN PAN-TURK PROGRAMS"

Noyan Tapan
Dec 20 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. The main reason for the current
crisis of the Armenian-Turkish relations are the preconditions
presented to Armenia by Turkey. This statement was made by Armen
Rustamian, the Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign
Relations, in his speech made at the parliamentary hearings on the
"Armenian-Turkish relations: Problems and perspectives" subject held
on December 20.

He mentioned that the preconditions are the following: to unilateraly
recognize the regional completeness of Turkey through a double
ratification of the Kars treaty and provide relations between the
region of Nakhijevan and Azerbaijan, to stop the process on the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide and settle the Nagorno Karabakh
problem by taking troops out of Karabakh and adjacent territories.

In the opinion of Armen Rustamian, with its claim concerning the
double ratification of the Kars treaty, Turkey calls in question
the only document on the Armenian-Turkish relations. The reason for
mentioning Nakhijevan among the preconditions is that, according to
the Kars treaty the latter was handed to Azerbaijan as a protected
territory and not a territory to be included in its own structure,
which has been violated by Azerbaijan.

Making the condition for renouncing the process on the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey aims at avoiding any responsibility
with regard to that issue, and in case of necessity for recognition,
at avoiding any material or regional requital. Thus, in the words of
Armen Rustamian, Turkey not only refuses to recognize the Armenian
Genocide but has also "assumed the ignominous role of a person, who
condemns those, who condemn the crime committed against humanity and
a judge, who reverses the charge concerning himself."

Bringing forward the precondition in connection with the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, Turkey, according to Armen Rustamian, makes itself
an officially not declared part of the conflict.

Armen Rustamian mentioned that the establishment of relations with
Armenia does not fit in the geostrategical programs of Turkey and
Azerbaijan: the two states of the same people, the leading idea for
which remains Pan-Turkism. And that, in his conviction, is a threat
not only for the security of Armenia, but of the whole region.

Turkey’s membership in the European Union, in the opinion of the
speaker, can prove favourable for Armenia, if becoming a European
country is a sincere goal for Turkey and not just a means for
strengthening his pan-turk ambitions. "Only that kind of European
Turkey can realize that it should not only renounce the preconditions
of ultimatum character as soon as possible, but, on the contrary,
to also apart from the Ottoman Empire by recognizing the Armenian
Genocide with a posture decent for a civilized country, as well as
to assume a peacemaking role by remaining positively neutral with
regard to the Karabakh issue," Armen Rustamian mentioned.