ARMENIA – TURKEY AND ARMENIA – AZERBAIJAN
Vardan Grigoryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
12 Sep 2008
Armenia

The disputes on Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Azerbaijani relations
held in Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan are gradually declining from
their political, legal bases and turning into fruitless attempts of
employing joint standards.

The copious pieces of advise and proposals made by the political
scientists and political figures of different countries are added
to it. But the latter are unfortunately based on the "establishment"
of foreign experience.

Whereas the analyses of the situation created at the moment in
Armenian-Turkish relations and Armenian – Azerbaijani confrontation
clearly display that here we deal with issues on diametrically
different planes, the artificial unification of which will lead to
a deadlock rather than settlement.

The issue of the settlement of Armenian – Turkish entangled string is
not only the task of the improvement of Armenian – Turkish inter-state
relations; it is also the matter of the tough and multi-planned
relations of the countries and international structures that have
already condemned Turkey for the crime of the Genocide of Armenians.

Even in case of great desire Armenia and Turkey can’t shoulder the
responsibility of dismantling this entangled string. Because the
primary attempts of improving Armenian – Turkish relations can be in
the sc ope of inter-state dialogues, in conformity with the standards
of the 21-century.

The circle of the issues that by now separates the two peoples is far
not manifested by the existing conflict, it is more due to the crime
and the obstinacy to accept the crime committed 90 years back. In
such circumstances the proposal regarding "mutual concessions" is, in
reality, the outcome of the political expectations of the third side.

Armenian people that have faced Genocide have already lost all the
grounds that could have served as bases for a possible compromise with
Turkey. As a result the only thing left to do for Turkey is to take
the role of a "defender of Azerbaijan’s rights" or not to respond to
the accusations of the Genocide in its address. This tactics is very
far from being considered as "mutual concession".

In our view the improvement of Armenian – Turkish relations tends to
the launch of the future programs.

The issue of overcoming the obstacles that hinders the settlement of
Armenian- Azerbaijani relations is quite a different problem, because
here we deal with an unsettled territorial issue. At the moment Armenia
and Azerbaijan have certain problems, which they have inherited quite
recently, and they can solve these problems based on mutual concession.

Here we deal with a clear format of mediating countries – OSCE Minsk
group, which has elaborated concrete20proposal of mutual concessions
and is waiting for the answer of the two parties.

Consequently the combination of Armenian – Turkish and Armenian –
Azerbaijani relations will make unavoidable the maintenance and the
"conservation" of the tough entangled string of the world, territorial,
inter-state and inter – ethnic relations, which during the recent
years didn’t allow finding perceptible solutions.

To condition the improvement of Armenian-Turkish relations with finding
mutual concessions with Azerbaijan means to breach the only possible
"zero-based principle" of Armenian – Turkish dialogue. And vice verse –
to condition the finalization of Armenian – Azerbaijani negotiation
process with Armenian – Turkish relations means to intensify the
territorial conflict already existing in South Caucasus.

In our view the negotiations based on the search of mutual concessions
in Karabakh conflict should still be held in the framework of OSCE
Minsk Group as for the task of holding negotiations on establishing
Armenian-Turkish relations from the starting point, at least
temporarily must be demarcated from the entangled string of all the
historical, legal and political problems that have been accumulated in
Armenian-Turkish relations from the beginning of the previous century.