PRESIDENT SARGSIAN PROMOTES TURKEY PROTOCOLS IN DIASPORA MEETINGS
by Emil Sanamyan
o/article/2009-10-06-president-sargsian-promotes-t urkey-protocols-in-diaspora-meetings&pg=2
Tues day October 06, 2009
ARF stages street protests in New York and Los Angeles
New York – At meetings in New York and Los Angeles on October 3 and 4,
representatives of American-Armenian and Canadian-Armenian groups had
an exchange of views with President Serge Sargsian on the agreement
on the normalization of relations initialed between Armenia and
Turkey. The meetings were part of a longer presidential tour with
stops in France, Lebanon, and Russia.
According to Turkish officials, the protocols on diplomatic relations
and bilateral cooperation are expected to be signed by the foreign
ministers of the two countries in Zurich, Switzerland, on October
10. Armenian officials have not yet confirmed that date.
Armenian officials requested that the diaspora discussions be treated
as off the record, although many of the statements delivered by
organizations were made public either before or after the meetings.
The October 3 New York meeting included representatives from the
eastern United States and Canada, with representatives from the
western United States and Latin America attending the Los Angeles
meeting the following day.
The meetings were by invitation only. No public appearances were
organized, and an anticipated presidential interview with three Los
Angeles-area Armenian television channels did not take place.
Debate in New York
The New York event involved about 50 participants from the diaspora,
representing several dozen organizations, sitting at tables arranged
in a large square, with media sitting at a separate table.
President Sargsian’s delegation included former president of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Arkady Ghoukasian, the chairperson of
Armenia’s Constitutional Court Gagik Harutiunian, Diaspora Minister
Hranush Hakobyan, and a dozen or more aides and diplomats.
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who handled the negotiations over
the protocols and is expected to be the one to sign the documents on
Armenia’s behalf, was not in the delegation. Neither were any members
of parliament; the protocols require parliamentary ratification to
go into effect.
Diaspora organizations represented included this newspaper’s parent
company CS Media and the U.S.-Armenia Public Affairs Committee
(USAPAC). In attendance were archbishops and other clergy from the
Eastern and Canadian dioceses and prelacies of the Armenian Church,
representatives of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF),
Armenian National Committee of America, and affiliated groups in the
eastern United States and Canada, the Armenian General Benevolent Union
and its associated organizations, the Armenian Assembly of America and
its affiliates, the Zoryan Institute, the Fund for Armenian Relief,
the Armenia Fund, Birthright Armenia, and the Congress of Canadian
Armenians.
Andranik Migranian, a Russian-Armenian community leader and former
Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission member now working in
New York, and Vahan Kololian of the Mosaic Institute of Toronto were
also present.
Media representatives in attendance included the Armenian Reporter,
the New York-based freelancer Florence Avakian, Ardzagank TV (which
also reports for Voice of America Armenian Service), AGBU and Ararat
magazines, the Boston-based Hairenik, Armenian Weekly, and Armenian
Mirror-Spectator newspapers, and the Montreal-based Horizon newspaper.
The event began with on-the-record introductory remarks by the
president. He reiterated his determination to proceed toward
normalization of relations with Turkey, while also admitting to a
number of reservations and concerns, many of which he had shared in
his interview with the Armenian Reporter last week.
Mr. Sargsian, who in the early 1990s was commander of Karabakh
self-defense forces, compared the ongoing talks with Turkey to the
war in Karabakh. The war was incredibly difficult and few initially
expected Armenian success, he said, but it was also unavoidable.
Just as Armenians prevailed in the war, Mr. Sargsian said, he fully
expected to be successful in talks with Turkey as well, which he also
described as difficult but unavoidable.
He also argued that the process of normalization of relations with
Turkey was not an excuse for a curtailment of genocide-affirmation
efforts.
On the subject of talks with Azerbaijan, Mr. Sargsian confirmed the
long-standing Armenian position that Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be made
part of Azerbaijan and that any settlement required serious security
guarantees for its Armenian population.
The president’s 40-minute introduction was followed by more than 40
statements, remarks, and questions from various organizations and
individuals that continued for nearly four hours uninterrupted.
The views expressed ranged from unreservedly supportive to highly
critical of the president’s policy on the Turkey protocols. There
were a number of tense exchanges.
Following the diaspora presentations, and comments by Mr. Ghoukasian
and Mr. Harutiunian, Mr. Sargsian wrapped up the meeting by responding
to some of the concerns and questions posed.
According to participants in the Los Angeles meeting, the event
involved about 60 diaspora representatives, with the president
responding to points raised after each of about 30 presentations. At
that meeting, while a number of disagreements were voiced, the
discussion remained civil.
Angry protests
Throughout the president’s tour, the ARF organized street protests,
with many thousands reportedly turning out in Los Angeles on October 4,
while up to 200 were seen picketing in New York the day before.
In New York the protestors came from as far away as Boston, Chicago,
and Washington. They held placards saying "Voch" (no) to the protocols,
telling the president "Mi Davachanir" (or Mi tavajanir, Do not betray),
and announcing that Mr. Sargsian was "not welcome in New York."
According to the Armenian Weekly, a smaller group of protestors at
one point entered the New York hotel where the meeting was taking
place; the protestors’ chanting briefly became audible inside the
meeting hall, before the New York police and the U.S. Secret Service
intervened.
Video reports available online indicate the Los Angeles protest
included similar slogans and also involved a brief attempt by
protestors to cross the police barricade, but no serious incidents.
According to Asbarez, some 200 activists set up a human barricade
around the Armenian Genocide monument in Montebello, as activists in
Paris had done two days earlier, in order to prevent President Sargsian
from laying flowers there. Whereas the president laid a wreath in
Paris after police physically removed protesters, he simply did not
show up at Montebello at the time the demonstrators had expected him.