Hayots Ashkharh, Armenia
Feb 13 2008

Raffi Hovhannesyan denies the genocide

by Lilit Poghosyan

After a long series of failures, former President Ter-Petrosyan has
struck lucky. The glorious leader of the Heritage Party [Raffi
Hovhannesyan], as it was supposed, made the pro-Ter-Petrosyan public
happy by deciding the vital issue of "whom to join" in favour of
Ter-Petrosyan.

It is interesting that the authors of the Heritage Party’s statement
on endorsing Ter-Petrosyan’s candidacy at the same time urge "all
citizens who have the right to vote" not to make their votes "subject
to immoral sales", without referring to the vital issue of putting
the Heritage Party’s seats in election commissions up for sale.

Ter-Petrosyan is likely to have offered a better price "portfolio"
for those places, which helped the party leader to emerge from a
period of prolonged indecision and finally voice his unambiguous
support for the former president, who has declared national ideology
to be a false category.

Better late than never. The people should know their heroes.
Otherwise, one may think (and not only think, but be sure) that this
figure who, despite his inconsistency, is considered a patriot, would
never be at Ter-Petrosyan’s side under the banner of establishing
brotherly relations with Azerbaijan at the expense of Karabakh and
settling Armenian-Turkish relations at the expense of recognition of
the Armenian genocide. Even in the present circumstances, when the
mentioned boss [Ter-Petrosyan] is trying to fudge these issues using
the various formulations that have been presented to society for
campaign purposes.

It is hard to say for sure whether the Heritage Party’s potential
electorate will listen to Hovhannesyan’s directive or, on the
contrary, finally reject him. And whether at this election there will
be a repeat of the precedent of Talin [town in northern Armenia],
where the leader of the Heritage Party tried his strength in the
uncompromising struggle for a seat in majoritarian constituency
number 15, was completely defeated and was left in the position of an
outsider.

In any case, there is little likelihood that many supporters of the
former foreign minister, who was dismissed from the post by Levon
Ter-Petrosyan for speaking about the genocide in Turkey, would like
to vote for Levon Efendi [Turkish mode of address].

As for Raffi Hovhannesyan, we do not believe that his pro-Levon
behaviour should come as a surprise to anyone. The point is that he
has overcome the complications of the early 90s and now stands a good
chance to compete for the post of Ter-Petrosyan’s future foreign
minister with former Foreign Minister Aleksandr Arzumanyan. In
particular, he has revised his strict position on the genocide. You
don’t believe it? See for yourself.

For those who do not believe, we present the congratulatory message
of the leader of the Heritage Party to Abdullah Gul from 29 August
2007, in which Hovhannesyan from the bottom of his heart
congratulates the Turkish president on his election.

[The article is accompanied by a facsimile of Hovhannesyan’s letter
in English to Gul]

Then he humbly states: "The deep divides between our countries, be
they of contemporary character, or part of the legacy of the Great
Armenian Dispossession, must be overcome" [text taken directly from
English original].

So US presidents need not bother any longer about searching for
harmless wording that gratifies the ambitions of the Turks,
qualifying the first genocide of the 20th century as "tragic events"
at one time, or as "cruelties", "mass killings" at others. Raffi
Hovhannesyan has already found the right wording describing the
genocide as the Great Armenian Dispossession.

We are sure that if needed he will support the leaders of the United
States by providing free of charge or, why not, selling the copyright
for this political know-how.