ASHOT MELKONYAN: RATIFICATION OF THE KARS AGREEMENT WOULD BE A GROSS ERROR
Alisa Georgyan

"Radiolur"
27.05.2009 17:50

Centuries after losing statehood in 1045 in Motherland and in 1375
in Cilicia, we finally restored our independent statehood on May 28,
1918 and Armenia was declared an independent republic.

Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of
Sciences Ashot Melkonyan told a press conference today that this
important fact raised the discontent of Western Armenians, who were
constantly stating that it would be logical to call the state the
Republic of Eastern Armenia, Republic of Ararat or Republic of Yerevan,
since Western Armenia was excluded from that area. After the second
conference of Western Armenians expressed its discontent in 1919,
it called on the Armenian authorities to take care of Western Armenia.

As a result, on May 28, 1919, on the first anniversary of independence
Alexander Khatisyan declared Armenia a free, independent and united
state.

Although many assessed it as adventurism and the wording remained
on paper, the historian attaches great importance to adopting this
approach.

According to Ashot Melkonyan, the interests of Western Armenians should
be directly touched upon in the current processes of normalization
of the Armenian-Turkish relations. In this context the historian
spoke about the known and unknown "road map" and the possible
preconditions it may contain, particularly the ratification of the
Kars Agreement. Ashot Melkonyan considers that giving new breath to an
illegal agreement signed between Soviet Russia and Kemalist Turkey,
neither of which was considered a subject of international law,
would be a gross error.

Ashot Melkonyan is assured that it’s high time to establish
plenipotentiary bodies in the Diaspora, which will represent the
interests of Western Armenians in international structures.