A WINDOW OPENED FOR ARMENIA
Lilit Poghosyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
02 Oct 2008
Armenia

Hurry Up Until It Closes

Yesterday ex Foreign Minister, founder of "Sivilitas" fund Vardan
Oskanyan convened a press conference devoted to the establishment
of the organization and he willingly introduced their mission and
future plans.

We Must Be Vigilant In Our Relations With Turkey

The journalists naturally asked about the attitude of the ex Foreign
Minister towards the recent Armenian-Turkish relations.

"For me there is one criterion for the normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relations, which is – the opening of the border or at
least the operation of the railway. There is no other criterion. If
during the coming months none of them comes true I will say that
Turkey perfectly speculated its chance.

And if the border opens during the coming months or the railway
operates we can say that Gyul’s invitation to Yerevan was the right
decision," Vardan Oskanyan said.

Touching upon the trilateral meeting between the Foreign Ministers
of Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, which took place in New York,
and Turkey’s mediation affectations the ex Foreign Minister said:
"Of course Turkey wants to appear as a mediator. It will definitely
make Turkey’s reputation in the region higher. But as far as I
understood the agenda included regional issues and Turkey’s init
iative towards Caucasus.

Actually in my view at the moment Turkey doesn’t have any role in
those negotiations because the border is still closed and the railway
doesn’t operate and Turkey appears as a party in that conflict.

In such circumstances Turkey doesn’t have anything to do and Armenia’s
diplomacy must do its best to firstly prevent Turkey from similar
involvement and creating an opinion in the whole world that it is
in the role of a mediator, because Turkey doesn’t have the right for
similar role."

As regards the expediency to set up a joint committee of Armenian and
Turkish historians Vardan Oskanyan said: "Any step that can somehow
cast doubt on the fact of the Genocide is unacceptable. In this issue
we must really be very vigilant."

The ex Foreign Minister didn’t exclude that the direct participants
of the "football diplomacy" the President and the Foreign Minister
know more than the public does: "Maybe Turkey gave certain guarantees
regarding the opening of the border. Otherwise for me it is a bit
strange to hear the announcement made by the President saying that we
don’t have any land demands from Turkey and we are ready to discuss
any issue. So the thing that the Turks wanted from us we have already
given to them and the thing that we want from Turkey we haven’t yet
taken from them."

Gyul’s announcement saying that until Armenia returns the "occupied
territories" to Azerbaijan, Armenian-Turkish border won’t open,
indirectly displays that Turkey can’t change its harsh attitude
towards Armenia and will continue to speak with us in the language
of ultimatums.

Vardan Oskanyan also touched upon the tensed internal political
situation that has been established in Armenia after March 1. "Both
the ruling power and the opposition must do their best to mitigate
the created tension and in general to annihilate it. In my view the
authorities must take steps linked with the detained. I’m glad to
hear that the President is going to deliver a speech in the National
Assembly and that there is a possibility of amnesty."

"By solving this entangled string can Armenia essentially raise its
reputation in the region?"

"I must record that we shouldn’t lose this moment because actually
a window has been opened for Armenia to put its reputation on its
real place.

We have lost lots of things after March 1 developments and today we
have a very good chance. Actually we are already late but the window
is still open."

But this doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t give legal assessment to what
has happened. "March 1 is one of the black pages of our history. We
must be able to turn that page. But in order to turn it we must give
right assessment and move forward."0D