BOTH SPECULATIONS AND CONFUSIONS OVER THE PRESIDENT’S STATEMENTS
Lilit Poghosyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 11, 2008
Armenia

The representatives of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation –
Dashnaktsutyun (ARFD) have had the occasion to touch upon Serge
Sargsyan’s statement on the regulation of the Armenian-Turkish
relations, a statement which the press supporting the Armenian
Pan-National Movement immediately distorted, representing it as an
"abrupt turning point" in the policy of the international recognition
of the Armenia Genocide.

But considering that the pro-Ter-Petrosyan propaganda machine
assiduously continues to speculate the obviously false thesis (that
has become the top hit of the season) as though the President has
thus "questioned the fact of the Armenian Genocide", we again asked
Dashnaktsutyun, a party supporting the claims of ‘Hay Dat’ (Armenian
Cause) to express its opinion.

KIRO MANOYAN, Person in Charge for the ARFD Bureau’s Central Office of
‘Hay Dat’ and Political Affairs, gives answers to our questions.

"In the statement released after the plenary session, Dashnaktsutyun
ruled out the possibility that the attitude of any senior Armenian
official might differ from the approach adopted in 1998. Is it possible
to state that the rumors on the "divergence of approaches" between
the second and the incumbent Presidents of Armenia are exaggerated?"

"We have said and continue holding the viewpoint the statement Serge
Sargsyan made in Moscow with regard to setting up a committee of
Armenian and Turkish historians has given rise to some confusions,
and it would be more preferable if he hadn’t made any statement of
the kind.

At the same time, both the President’s statement and the clarifications
made thereafter show once again that Serge Sargsyan does not consider
the fact of the Armenian Genocide a disputable issue, and the
conversation may go around studying the details and not recognizing
the fact of the Genocide.

However, before doing that, it is necessary for Turkey to open the
border and establish diplomatic relations with Armenia.

Is there any difference between the approaches of the two
Presidents? In some respect, there is. As you know, in response to
Prime Minister Erdoghan’s letter proposing to set up a bilateral
committee of historians with the purpose of discussing the issue
of the Genocide, President Kocharyan clearly stated that it was
not right and fair to lay the whole burden of the problems existing
between the two countries upon the shoulders of historians, and it
was more advisable to set up an inter-parliamentary committee which
will discuss all the matters of concern.

However, it’s one thing when you say that you are ready to discuss
all the problems and quite a different thing when you emphasize that
it is possible to discuss any question including the issue of setting
up a committee studying the historical facts even though those facts
are confirmed and not subject to any dispute. This may give rise to
various interpretations, and Armenia is not the only place where the
issue is being speculated.

In foreign countries there are also people who, during official
discussions and meetings, raise the following question: if the
President of Armenia is inclined to approve the proposal of setting
up a committee of Armenian and Turkish historians, is there any need
to adopt a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide."

"Anyway, is it possible to conclude from here that Armenia has
officially ‘approved the proposal of setting up a committee questioning
the fact of the Armenian Genocide’?"

"Should Turkey make response, it will clearly express the country’s
attitude towards the whole proposal. That is, it will have to answer
the question whether it is ready to open the border and establish
diplomatic relations with Armenia and only thereafter raise the
question of the committee. Nevertheless, the truth is that the
statement of the President gives rise to both speculations and
confusions. Our concern is this and not the fact that the President
considers the historical fact of the Genocide disputable or promotes
the implementation of Turkey’s proposal.

By making this statement, inviting the Turkish President to Yerevan
and publishing an article on the Armenia-Turkey dialogue, President
Sargsyan is probably trying to create some atmosphere. It rests with
us to wait and see how far he can go for satisfying the preconditions
advanced by Turkey and not only."

"What do you mean?"

"Of course, S. Sargsyan hasn’t made any statement with regard to
yielding to the preconditions of Turkey, but just a day before
the President’s official visit to Moscow some preconditions were
advanced by the American officials. The conversation was about the
statements on Armenia’s recognizing the Turkish borders and waiving
its territorial claims.

Those statements are a little bit unclear, at least as far as the
United States is concerned because there’s no US-Turkey agreement in
which the United States recognizes the present-day Armenian-Turkish
borders. In 1927, they wanted to sign such a treaty, or rather, they
did sign it, however, the Senate refused to ratify the document. In
case of establishing diplomatic relations without preconditions,
Armenia and Turkey will be neither the first nor the last countries
to face the problem of borders despite having diplomatic relations."