INTERVIEW – ARMENIAN OPPOSITION ISSUES WARNING OVER TURKEY THAW
By Hasmik Lazarian

Reuters
Oct 20 2009
UK

YEREVAN (Reuters) – An Armenian opposition leader said on Tuesday
President Serzh Sarksyan lacked public backing to make concessions
in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to secure ties with foe Turkey and
demanded elections if he tries.

"I do not believe the Armenian authorities are capable of convincing
the Armenian public that unilateral concessions on two fronts, namely
Armenian-Turkey relations and the Karabakh conflict, are necessary,"
Giro Manoyan told Reuters.

Turkey and Armenia are pursuing a road map to establish diplomatic
relations, open their border and end a century of hostility stemming
from the World War One mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

But Sarksyan faces resistance from opponents at home and the huge
Armenian diaspora abroad, who say Turkey should first recognise the
killings as genocide.

They are also worried by Turkish demands that Armenia make
concessions in its festering conflict with Turkish ally Azerbaijan
over Nagorno-Karabakh before Armenian-Turkish accords are ratified
by parliament.

"The Turkish government will use the ratification process in the
Turkish parliament as leverage to try to pressure the Armenian side to
give in to Azeri-Turkish demands regarding resolution of the Karabakh
conflict," said 46-year-old Manoyan, international secretary of the
opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun.

Sarksyan denies any link. But analysts say he is under pressure to
offer something to seal the pact, which would ease Armenia’s economic
woes and boost Turkey’s credentials as a moderniser in the West.

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STREET PROTESTS Manoyan’s party, which has strong support in the
diaspora, quit as a minority partner in the ruling coalition in
April. It holds 16 seats in the 131-seat parliament. The Heritage
Party with seven seats shares its position on the thaw.

With 94 seats, Sarksyan’s remaining partners enjoy a strong majority
and can force through the accords. But Armenia is no stranger to
political street protests, the last coming in March last year when
police and opposition protesters clashed over Sarksyan’s election.

Nagorno-Karabakh cost former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan his job in
1998 when he was forced to resign under pressure from opponents angered
by concessions he offered to Azerbaijan over the mountain region.

Manoyan said the opposition would seek snap elections, in comments
that underscored the strength of feeling among Sarksyan’s opponents
and particularly the diaspora, which has played a key role in Armenian
foreign policy since independence.

Sarksyan was met with angry protests by members of the diaspora during
a week-long intercontinental tour to discuss the accords before they
were signed this month in Zurich.

Turkey rejects the term genocide, saying many people died on both
sides of the conflict. But the event remains a central element of
Armenian national identity.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with close
fellow Muslim ally Azerbaijan, which was fighting Armenian-backed
ethnic Armenians in breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian-backed forces took control of the mountain region and seven
Azeri districts surrounding it in a war that cost 30,000 lives and
still threatens security in a region key for oil and gas transit to
the West.

Beirut-born Manoyan, whose parents fled last century’s killings,
threatened "every available political and constitutional means"
to block ratification of the accords.

"If we do not succeed, the only alternative left is to go for a change
of administration, to have a new president and a new national assembly
which will renounce these protocols as null and void."