NATIONALISTS LAUNCH HUNGER STRIKES AGAINST TURKEY RECONCILIATION DEAL
Marianna Grigoryan

Transitions Online, Czech Rep.
Sept 17 2009

Nagorno-Karabakh and genocide claims could divide Armenian public
opinion on the diplomatic breakthrough. From EurasiaNet.

The tentative Armenian-Turkish plan for diplomatic normalization has
sparked Armenia’s oldest political party, the nationalist-oriented
Armenian Revolutionary Federation, to take to the streets with sit-down
protests and hunger strikes. Public support for the party’s criticism
that the Armenian government risks selling out Armenia’s national
security interests appears to be spreading, even though it remains
far from uniform.

Bearing red party flags and banners proclaiming "Don’t forget,
don’t surrender, let’s rebel!" 74 party activists, including 24
hunger strikers, kicked off their campaign in front of the Foreign
Ministry and the prime minister’s office in downtown Yerevan on 15
September. The protests will continue until the end of the six-week
period envisaged for discussion of the protocols within Armenia and
Turkey before the documents’ ratification, the party’s TV ads state.

President Serzh Sargsyan plans to start consultations on the protocols
on 17 September with the leaders of Armenia’s major political parties.

Supporters claim that the 31 August protocols imply that Armenia
should recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, accept the
current Armenian-Turkish state border, and, by agreeing to "implement
a dialogue on the historical dimension," potentially backtrack on
the country’s longstanding demand for international recognition of
Ottoman Turkey’s 1915 mass slaughter of ethnic Armenians as genocide.

The documents, however, make no such specifications on these
topics. Written in broad language, they commit the two sides to opening
their joint border within two months of the protocols’ ratification and
to establishing bilateral government commissions to work on expanding
cooperation in fields ranging from education to energy. Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has emphasized in media interviews that
border recognition is the first step in the reconciliation process,
but the protocols do not mention border recognition.

That, however, does nothing to reassure many Armenians. "We will fight
until the end since [the protocols signed with Turkey] contradict
our national interests," one male protestor in his late 20s told
EurasiaNet. "We will do everything that promotes our national
interests."

Statements from Turkish government officials that the border will
not open until Armenia and Azerbaijan make progress in settling the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict suggest that attention on the Karabakh
issue will increase in the coming months, opined political analyst
Yervand Bozoian. "That’s the most dangerous thing," he said.

The governing Republican Party of Armenia counters that the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation is using the protest to score self-interested
political points. The 119-year-old party left Armenia’s coalition
government in April in protest at President Sargsyan’s Turkey policy.

"The Armenian Revolutionary Federation and other political forces have
the right to choose what way to fight," commented Republican Party
parliamentarian Eduard Sharmazanov, the party’s spokesperson. "Any
preconditions from Turkey are unacceptable for us."

Other members of the governing coalition have echoed those comments. "I
think we just need good will and courage. We see it in the actions
of this president [Sargsyan]. We’ll help the president to settle
this issue," declared Heghine Bisharian, head of the Orinats Yerkir
(Country of Law) parliamentary faction.

But many Armenians do not see any manifestation of "good will"
in the protocols’ provisions. "Turks are so cunning, they will do
everything to serve their interests. We know it perfectly well,"
asserted 70-year-old Anzhela Garanian, whose parents survived the
1915 slaughter. "How can I believe in their sincerity when I have
heard all these stories from my father?"

Philologist Mkrtich Hambardzumian similarly equates the Turkey of
the Ottoman past with the Turkey of the present. He takes issue
with Turkish assertions that Turkey’s border with Armenia cannot be
reopened until Armenian forces withdraw from Azerbaijani territory
surrounding Karabakh. "What are we talking about? Turkey forgetting
its bloody history now tries to interfere with the Karabakh issue," he
fumed. "I’m not a political scientist, but the protocol is worrying."

Suspicion in Yerevan about Turkey’s motives is far from universal,
however. Some passers-by at the protest commented on the irony of
a former government coalition member now staging hunger strikes to
block a government policy. Other Yerevan residents said protestors
should consider the future. "I don’t say we need to forget the past,"
said 25-year-old designer Emma Babaian. "But two neighbors cannot live
with closed borders forever. Bilateral relations will help Armenia
economically and will offer an alternative route to Europe."

The protests are not limited to the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation. The Heritage Party, the only opposition party represented
in parliament, has written Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian about
holding a referendum on the protocols. Earlier, Heritage Party leaders
proposed a vote of confidence in the president, and a petition to
the Constitutional Court. On 15 September, the party called on all
members of parliament to appeal for "radical" changes in the protocols.

"The development of Armenian-Turkish relations cannot directly or
indirectly be linked to the establishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic," asserted the Heritage Party’s parliamentary faction
secretary, Larisa Alaverdian.

Meanwhile, Suren Surenyants, a senior supporter of ex-President Levon
Ter-Petrosian, the head of Armenia’s main opposition coalition, argues
that Turkey wants to take on a leadership role in the South Caucasus,
and will, therefore, try to play the role of an impartial mediator on
Karabakh. The documents pose no danger to Armenia, he continued. Those
casting doubt on Turkey perhaps are trying to conceal their own
private agenda, he hinted. "Political groups should be sincere,"
he said. "Either we want [to establish] diplomatic relations [with
Turkey], which means we need these protocols, or we do not."