Tuesday,
Armenia, Turkey In Fresh Feud Over Post-WWI Treaty
Barbed wire, pictured against the backdrop of Mount Ararat, marks Armenia's
closed border with Turkey
The diplomatic agencies of Armenia and Turkey have exchanged acrimonious remarks
this week over a century-old treaty viewed differently from Yerevan and Ankara.
A conference was held in Armenia on August 10 to mark the 100th anniversary of
the Treaty of Sevres that was signed between the Allies of World War I, a
coalition led by France, Britain, the United States and others, against the
Central Powers, including the Ottoman Empire.
The 1920 treaty that was never ratified by Turkey, if implemented, would, in
particular, have given Armenia a much vaster territory than it had, including
access to the Black Sea.
In his address to scholars attending the Yerevan conference Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian described the treaty signed in a Parisian suburb as “a
historical fact”.
“Just as the Treaty of Versailles established peace in Europe, in the same way,
the Treaty of Sevres was meant to bring peace to the former Western Asian
territories of the Ottoman Empire. It put an end to the war-driven sufferings
and deprivations experienced by the peoples of our region. It heralded the end
of the ‘cursed years’,” Pashinian said.
“The Treaty of Sevres reaffirmed our nation’s indisputable historical
association with the Armenian Highland, wherein the Armenian people had
originated, lived, developed their statehood and culture for millennia,” he
added.
The remarks by Pashinian and other Armenian leaders, including President Armen
Sarkissian, on the occasion elicited a strong reaction from Turkey that
described the Treaty of Sevres as a case that “put forward the disgraceful
blueprints of invasion and destruction.”
“The Honorable Turkish Nation sent the Sevres [Treaty] to the ash heap of
history through its heroic War of Liberation, followed by the Peace Treaty of
Lausanne of 24 July 1923. It is not surprising to see that those who opt for
drawing animosity instead of a lesson from history after the lapse of a century
hope for help from this document,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a
statement published on its official website on Monday.
Reacting to the statement made from Ankara, Armenian Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Anna Naghdalian on August 11 said that “it once again demonstrates
the inability of that country [Turkey] to face its past.”
“While evading to face its past and urging others to ‘take lessons from history
instead of animosity’, Turkey continues its traditional policy of justifying the
Armenian Genocide and threatening the Armenian people with new atrocities,”
Naghdalian said in an official commentary.
“Turkey’s steps towards undermining the peace and security in our region and its
military posturing against Armenia are part of the expansionist policy of the
Turkish Government which is aimed at destabilizing its neighboring regions. Only
the reconsideration of such a policy and the capacity to face the past by Turkey
will pave a way for genuine reconciliation between the peoples in our region,”
the Armenian Foreign Ministry representative underscored.
Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic relations. Internationally backed efforts
for rapprochement in 2008-2009 eventually led to no normalization and the border
between the two neighboring countries remains closed to date.
Pashinian Criticized For ‘Hasty’ Congratulations To Lukashenka
• Narine Ghalechian
Police block demonstrators during a rally after the Belarusian presidential
election in Minsk on August 9
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has heard criticism in Armenia over his “hasty”
congratulations to Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on his re-election
in a ballot disputed by his main opposition challenger.
In his official message to Lukashenka on Monday Pashinian expressed his
confidence that “through our joint efforts we will continue to strengthen the
friendship between our peoples, to expand mutually beneficial cooperation
between our countries both bilaterally and within the framework of international
organizations and integration associations.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) meeting with Belarus President
Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Yerevan, September 30, 2019
Belarus’s Central Election Commission said preliminary official results from the
August 9 presidential election showed incumbent President Lukashenka winning a
landslide victory with more than 80 percent of the vote, compared to less than
10 percent for his main rival, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Tsikhanouskaya, who drew tens of thousands of people to her campaign rallies,
refused to recognize the preliminary official results announced on Monday.
The ballot in Belarus was followed by violent clashes between police and
thousands of protesters who say the official results from the election
commission were rigged.
A human rights group in Minsk said that at least one protester was killed in the
clashes, but Belarus’s Interior Ministry denied that.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on August 10 condemned the
violence in Belarus, calling on the Belarusian government to “accurately” count
and publish the poll’s results.
Armenia’s leading human rights activist Artur Sakunts believes that in such
conditions a hasty congratulatory message from a leader like Pashinian who
himself came to power due to mass street protests was unacceptable.
In a Facebook post Sakunts, who heads the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki
Citizens’ Assembly, also drew parallels between the current developments in
Belarus and Armenia’s post-election protests in 2008 in which 10 people were
killed and for which former President Robert Kocharian is currently on trial in
Yerevan.
He wrote: “How can a state whose prime minister congratulates dictator
Lukashenka later prosecute Kocharian for the same? This is a complete
anachronism of values and principles... This is just absurd.”
Human rights activist Artur Sakunts (file photo)
Sakunts stressed that in such conditions the leader of a democratic country
should not send congratulatory messages at least until final official results
are published. “If he wants to show his attitude in any way, he should at least
express his concern over the fact of human rights violations and call for the
resolution of all issues within the framework of the rule of law,” the human
rights activist said.
Opposition Bright Armenia party leader Edmon Marukian also believes that
Pashinian hurried by congratulating Lukashenka. He said that he saw a “conflict
of values” between the track record of Armenia’s current governing force and the
prime minister’s congratulatory message.
“I would wait for the processes of disputing the election results by the
opposition to go through at least internal instances and only then make a
decision on that. In this regard, the prime minister took a hasty step,”
Marukian said. “One protester already died [in Belarus in clashes with police].
More than 3,000 people have been detained. Opposition leaders are in jail, media
leaders and journalists are in jail. And the prime minister is putting it all
aside and hurrying to congratulate [Lukashenka].”
The prime minister’s spokesperson Mane Gevorkian refused to comment on the
criticism, but said that she was aware of that and followed it.
Ruben Rubinian, a member of Pashinian’s My Step alliance who heads the
parliament’s foreign relations committee, has dismissed the criticism, saying
that he sees nothing unacceptable in the Armenian prime minister’s
congratulations to Lukashenka.
“In general, international relations are different from domestic politics.
International partnership, relations between the heads of state have a different
level and have other components,” Rubinian said.
Armenia is a member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union and Collective
Security Treaty Organization both of which also include Belarus.
Other leaders of the alliances, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and
Kazakhstan’s President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, also sent congratulatory telegrams
to Lukashenka on his re-election.
Belarus’s autocratic leader who turns 66 later this month has occupied the
presidential post since 1994.
Schools In Armenia To Reopen On September 15
• Robert Zargarian
Schools in Armenia that have remained closed due to the coronavirus pandemic
since March will open their doors to students on September 15, according to
Education Minister Arayik Harutiunian.
Harutiunian said on Monday that the issue was discussed by senior government
officials coordinating the coronavirus state of emergency earlier that day.
The minister added that vocational training colleges, music and art schools will
also reopen on September 15.
All establishments must comply with sanitary and hygienic rules set by the
government, Harutiunian stressed.
According to the minister, decisions on universities and a number of other
educational institutions will be made within the next week.
“Authorities overseeing the state of emergency, other our colleagues and the
ministry have jointly developed detailed procedures and guidelines on all
issues, which will be published and shared in the coming days,” Harutiunian said
in a Facebook post.
“Dear teachers, parents and students, in the coming weeks we must work together
to ensure a successful start and a smooth course of the academic year, taking
into account the restrictions caused by the pandemic and excluding media
provocations,” the minister added.
All schools, universities and other general education institutions have remained
closed since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic in March when they
switched to distance learning to ensure the continuity of the educational
process.
The current state of emergency in Armenia is due to end on August 12, but the
government plans to extend it for another month.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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