SARKISIAN ON LAST LEG OF DIASPORA TOUR
Aza Babayan

845572.html
07.10.2009

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian arrived in southern Russia on
Wednesday on the last leg of his weeklong five-stop tour of major
Diaspora Armenian communities that also included France, the United
States and the Middle East.

In Rostov-on-Don, like during his previous meetings in Paris, New
York, Los Angeles and Beirut, the Armenian leader will try to allay
the possible concerns among the local and close Armenian communities
over his dramatic rapprochement with Turkey that culminated on August
31 in the initialing of two protocols envisaging the establishing
of diplomatic relations and opening of the border. The protocols are
expected to be signed by the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey
in Switzerland on October 10.

Armenia’s Ambassador to Russia Armen Smbatian earlier told RFE/RL
that the meeting in the southern Russian city will bring together
some 50 leaders of Armenian organizations in Russia, intellectuals,
leading entrepreneurs and other representatives of the sizable
Armenian community.

Unlike other places where Sarkisian was visiting, no protests were
expected in Rostov-on-Don. However, a number of Armenian organizations,
including "Russian-Armenian Cooperation", the "Ararat" Union, the
"Yerkramas" newspaper editorial staff, had issued a call ahead
of Sarkisian’s visit for the Armenian authorities not to sign the
protocols.

The organizations said Turkey is setting preconditions to Armenia
in the protocols that, in particular, contain a clause that commits
Armenia to recognizing the existing Turkish-Armenian border. They
also challenged another clause of the protocols that calls for
the establishment of a panel of historians to review historical
discrepancies between the two peoples that primarily include the
1915-1918 genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Sarkisian, who is completing his unprecedented tour on Wednesday,
was greeted in France, the United States and Lebanon with protests
staged by some members of the local Armenian communities opposing
the current protocols.

The latest protests were held in Beirut as he arrived there on Tuesday
for a meeting with representatives of the large communities of the
Middle East and Lebanon – Lebanon Armenians protest against proposed
signing of Armenian – Turkish protocols, Beirut, 06Oct2009the broader
region. Thousands of Lebanese Armenians reportedly staged protests
against the Armenia-Turkey protocols.

During his meetings in all four cities, Sarkisian attempted to persuade
Diaspora Armenians that the protocols do not harm Armenian state and
national interests, but, on the contrary, open new opportunities for
resolving the centuries-old feud between the two neighbors.

The leading Armenian organizations in the world have expressed
conflicting views on Armenia’s dramatic rapprochement with Turkey that
Sarkisian initiated last year by inviting his Turkish counterpart
Abdullah Gul to Yerevan to attend a football match between the two
countries’ national teams. Since then, the governments of the two
countries agreed a road map to normalizing bilateral relations and
are now believed to be on the verge of signing a deal.

Some Diaspora leaders have expressed serious concern about key points
of the two draft protocols. They are particularly critical of the
planned creation of a Turkish-Armenian panel of historians that
would look into the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire. Critics claim this provision is tantamount to questioning
the fact of the Armenian Genocide and could hamper the process of the
international affirmation of the genocide advanced by Armenian lobbyist
and advocacy groups in the West and elsewhere in the world for decades.

Diaspora groups also object to another protocol clause that commits
Armenia to recognizing its existing border with Turkey. They argue
that it would preclude future Armenian territorial claims to areas
in eastern Turkey that were populated by their ancestors until the
1915-1918 massacres.

There are also lingering concerns in and outside Armenia about a
possible linkage between the Armenian-Turkish normalization and the
separate internationally mediated talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan
around the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

In Lebanon on Tuesday Sarkisian held a meeting with more than a hundred
representatives of national organizations and structures of large
Armenian communities of the Middle East, Egypt, Iran and the Gulf
countries, according to the information reported by his press office.

Before the meeting, Sarkisian met with Beirut-based Catholicos Aram I
of the Great House of Cilicia, the number two figure in the Armenian
Church hierarchy, who added his voice to the lingering concerns
over the protocols in a letter sent to Sarkisian two weeks ago. The
two reportedly discussed the current stage of the Armenian-Turkish
normalization and issues regarding the initialed protocols.

Sarkisian’s office also reported that during the meeting in Beirut
representatives of the Armenian communities in the region highly
evaluated Sarkisian’s initiative to listen to the opinions of the
far-flung Diaspora about the dramatic thaw in relations with Turkey.

In Beirut, Sarkisian also reportedly provided explanations to various
aspects of the protocols as well as answered questions raised by the
meeting participants.

"The current unnatural situation that exists between Armenia and Turkey
does not suit either us or Turkey. The establishment of diplomatic
relations and the opening of the border will create a platform, a more
or less bearable environment, for continued dialogue and negotiations,"
the Armenian leader emphasized.

Sarkisian also stressed that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
which some in Diaspora communities fear could be slowed down or
halted altogether in view of the Armenia-Turkey rapprochement, is
"not only a matter of the restoration of justice, but also a major
circumstance from the viewpoint of the security of Armenia and the
Armenian people." "It is a necessity," the president stressed.

Sarkisian also dismissed concerns that the Armenian-Turkish
normalization will increase Turkey’s role in the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan, its ethnic ally in the
region.

"The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will get a solution only when we
see that we’ve got what our people have struggled for since 1988,"
he underscored.

Armenian and Turkish officials are expected to sign the protocols on
October 10 in Switzerland. The agreement will then go to the respective
parliaments for ratification.

>From Roston-on-Don Sarkisian is scheduled to leave for Moldovan
capital Chisinau where he will participate in the summit of leaders
of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, and on the
eve of the summit, on October 8, will meet with Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev for another round of talks on Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group
cochairman from Russia, Yuri Merzlyakov, stated in Baku on Tuesday
that no document will be signed by the two countries’ leaders during
their meeting in Chisinau.