CIVILITAS INITIATE DISCUSSIONS "ARMENIA-TURKEY: RETURN TO THE PAST"
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
30.09.2009 21:03 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Civilitas foundation in the framework
of the "Dialogue" program held a first discussion on the topic
"Armenia-Turkey: return to the past", which was attended by
representatives of the Turkish and Armenian public.
According to the Armenian public figure Alex Sardar, the discussions
today are aimed at revealing what do parties, Turkey and Armenia want
form each other. According to him, actually, the discussion of the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols have turned to a statement of "black and
white": they are accepted or not.
According to Yavuz Baydar, journalist for the Today’s Zaman Turkish
newspaper, the bulk of the Turkish society has no idea either about the
black pages of their history, or the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. "We
can’t live with this problem all the life, the society need to be
prepared to accept its past calmly," Yavuz Baydar said, adding that
Turkey does not want to have problems any more with its neighbors.
As the president of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan stressed
in his speech, the mediators of the normalization of Armenian-Turkish
relations can help or hinder the process, but they do not have a right
to decide instead of Armenia, or Turkey. "The very fact, that we can
sit and discuss our problems without any emotion, is very important
to me," Boris Navasardyan said. According to him, the Armenians are
afraid of novelty, which is explained by the fact that people do not
trust those, who make decisions for the country.
A two-week exhibition "The Armenians in Turkey 100 years ago"
recently held in Yerevan was also a part of the program. The exhibition
highlighted the life of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. According to
Osman Koker, organizer of the exhibition, the similar event was also
organized in Turkey and aroused great interest in the Turkish society.
Discussions devoted to Armenia-Georgia, "Armenia-Russia" and
"Armenia-EU" topics are also s for the coming months in the framework
of "Dialogue".
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
