PanARMENIAN.Net

Turkish wedge in the Armenian reality

Karine Ter-Sahakyan

Representatives of the Armenian Diaspora find it important for Yerevan
to know that the Armenians of France repudiate any agreement, achieved
at the expense of national interests of the Armenian people.
23.04.2009 GMT+04:00

The Armenian-Turkish agreement on the road map, in the final analysis,
could be promulgated after April 24, at least out of respect for the
memory of one-and-a-half million Armenians tortured and killed in the
Syrian deserts and another half a million, scattered throughout the
world. After all, this is not even an agreement, but simply a
memorandum on mutual understanding, that could be signed at any time
within the framework of `football diplomacy’ between September 6, 2008
and October 2009, when the reciprocal match Turkey – Armenia would
take place.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ However, since the document contains no word about
preconditions, Turkey decided to at least snatch a piece of imaginary
victory ` the date of proclamation, thus putting Armenia and the
Diaspora on the verge of separation. And in a few years no one will
ever remember what was there in the agreement, the most important
factor is that it was signed a day before April 24¦

According to independent French journalist Jean Eckiyan, Armenians
express their deepest concern over the statement of the Armenian and
Turkish MFAs. `This statement is undesirable for the following
reasons: first, it is made on the threshold of April 24, when
throughout the world Armenians remember the Armenian Genocide and
second, it can force Armenia to make certain concessions in the
question of recognition of the Genocide and the regulation of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.’

Representatives of the Armenian Diaspora consider that official
Yerevan, participating in such `doubtful and dangerous negotiations’,
should know that the Armenians of France, together with other Diaspora
communities, repudiate any agreement, achieved at the expense of
national interests of the Armenian people.

Hardly can any government of Armenia sign a document, analogous to the
Kars agreement, which will now be discussed below.

The text contains no mention whatever of preconditions laid by Turkey,
namely: renunciation of the international recognition of the Armenian
Genocide, regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and
acknowledgement of the boundaries of present-day Turkey,
i.e. ratification of the Kars agreement signed in 1921. And if the
first two clauses are not so important for Turkey, signing of the Kars
agreement is so much necessary to Ankara that it is ready to give up
everything, and the Karabakh issue in particular, which, in the
essence, has been only hindering Turkey for the last 15 years. It is
appropriate to recall that Baku is now in a very nervous state, quite
close to panic. But this is, in the essence, their problem.

However, as far as the Kars agreement is concerned, it expired in
1946, which we have already written about. Actually, therefore the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov in 1951
stated that the USSR had no territorial claims to Turkey,
`forgetting’, that the agreement was already void. Consequently, the
Kars Province, that was part of the Russian Empire, was to
automatically return to Russia, i.e. to the Soviet Union. However, the
Cold War started and Turkey should have been neutralized and
flattered, and we got what we have now: an extremely dangerous
neighbor, which is eager to, at any cost, legally consolidate its
borders.

It is probably necessary to remind that the Armenian-Turkish
negotiations have been conducted in Switzerland since 2007. Only they
have livened up recently, especially in connection with the growing
instability in Georgia. Russia, USA and Europe are all interested in
the normalization.

In a word, everything was leading to the fact that sooner or later a
document had to be signed. Even the date was assumed – April 16, when
FM of Turkey Ali Babacan was to arrive in Yerevan. However, no
document was signed in Yerevan, though judging by some information
leakages from government sources, the preliminary version of agreement
was made.

The road map between Armenia and Turkey is only a preliminary
document. It is not yet elaborated and we do not know what its final
version will be like. The agreement is apparently called to confirm
that the Turkish-Armenian negotiations go normally; however, it is not
less obvious that not all the disputable matters are finally settled.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress