ACCORDING TO KIRO MANOYAN, ARMENIA SHOULD NOT DEPRIVE ITSELF OF OPPORTUNITY OF EVER REFERRING TO SEVR TREATY

Noyan Tapan
Dec 24 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 24, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia should not sign a document,
according to which it will have to waive the principles of the
delimitation arbitration document of Woodrow Wilson. This conviction
was expressed by Kiro Manoyan, the Director of the ARF Bureau’s Hay
Dat and Political Affairs Office, at the press conference held on
December 21. According to him, the current borders between Armenia and
Turkey are stipulated by the Kars treaty, which has no legal force. By
not raising the issue on the borders drawn by the Sevr treaty at this
moment, Armenia should not be deprived of the right for touching upon
them later. Kiro Manoyan expressed conviction that the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide does not spontaneously lead to territorial
claims, that is why one should not wait for the recognition of the
genocide for laying territorial claims.

According to Kiro Manoyan, 16 years after the independence of Armenia
Turkey does not treat Armenia seriously. In his conviction, Armenia
should have a more initiating and effective foreign policy so as
Turkey, finally, starts conducting negotiations with Armenia.

Touching upon the claims of Armenia towards Turkey, Kiro Manoyan
mentioned that it is time to distinctly formulate them in financial,
cultural and other spheres and only then decide when and in what
succession to introduce those questions.

According to Kiro Manoyan, taking the historical experience into
consideration, Dashnaktsutiun treats the possibility for the
improvement of Turkey very sceptically. In his words, if Turkey
in not improved before becoming a member of the European Union,
it will be too much optimism to assume that it will be done after
the admission. "If Turkey enters the European Union under these
conditions, that structure will be closed for us," Kiro Manoyan
mentioned. According to him, if today Turkey is trying to isolate
Armenia by evading the obligations assumed by itself by international
treaties, it will lay every kind of obstacles on the way of Armenia,
when it becomes a part of the European Union. In his words, the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide is the improvement criterion
of Turkey for Armenia, which assumes not only certification of a
historical fact, but also recognition of responsibility by Turkey.

According to Kiro Manoyan the Diaspora and Armenia should coordinate
their activities. As an example of not coordinated activities, he
mentioned the fact, when the European structures of the Diaspora
were trying to persuade the MPs of the European Parliament to bring
forward the issue on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a
precondition for the membership of Turkey, almost at the same time the
Prime Minister of Armenia declared in his interview with the Financial
Times newspaper that Armenia is for the membership of Turkey in the
European Union.