ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS DOES NOT INTEND TO GO INTO POLITICAL MAXIMALISM
ArmInfo
2009-11-11 18:55:00
ArmInfo. The Armenian National Congress comes out for both
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations and the soonest settlement
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but both processes should be based on
the principles of mutual concessions and balance, the first president
of Armenia, leader of the oppositional Armenian National Congress
(ANC) Levon Ter-Petrosyan said at today’s meeting of ANC.
According to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, at the same time ANC resolutely comes
against creation of an Armenian-Turkish commission of historians. He
said creation of such a commission may not only cast doubt on
the fact of the Armenian Genocide, but hinder Armenian-Turkish
reconciliation. He added that in the Karabakh peace process ANC
admits no program, which doesn’t specify the factor of dislocation
of peacekeeping forces, the status of the Lachin corridor or
conditions of holding of a referendum. According to him, the only
way to neutralize the dangerous developments in the Armenian-Turkish
process and Karabakh conflict settlement is the change of power,
which, however, is impossible until all political forces realize this
and the considerable part of the society overcomes its indifference
to problems of national significance.
He added those who demand Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation are the
opposition, and those who don’t are supporters of the authorities no
matter how much they pretend that are concerned with the negative
consequences. "In the matter of change of power in Armenia and
restoration of the constitutional order we are ready to cooperate
with all the forces, including those who are not our team-mates,
except the foreign ones",- Ter-Petrosyan said. He added that slogans
like "not an inch of land", "no concessions" or "no reconciliation"
are not a political position and are fraught with a possible national
disaster no matter how distinct they sound. "And when such slogans are
not accompanied with the demand of change of power, they are false",-
the ANC leader said.
As regards normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, the ANC
leader said, the Turkey parliament will protract ratification of the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols or will ratify them with some reservations
trying to stimulate settlement of the Karabakh conflict. The Parliament
of Armenia will be pending and will try to return to the issue of the
Protocols only after Turkey ratifies them. The international community
will try to speed up the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, which
evidently meets the interests of Turkey.
Serzh Sargsyan will ask the mediators to suspend the Karabakh
conflict’s settlement pointing at the sharp opposition of Diaspora to
the given issue. The international community will display understanding
to Sargsyan’s explanation but will reject this request not to lose the
moment and to take advantage of his weakness. Quite on the contrary,
it will increase pressure on Armenia in the Karabakh issue. "The
parties interested will, probably, call on Armenia to ratify the
Protocols first because it will be uneasy for Turkey to protract
the ratification process after Armenia ratifies the Protocols,"
Ter-Petrosyan said. He believes that developments of the coming months
will be around the Karabakh process rather than the Armenian-Turkish
reconciliation. "Because, after all, the major condition of the
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation is not recognition of the Genocide,
but the Karabakh conflict’s settlement," he said. Levon Ter-Petrosyan
called the present situation extremely delicate and said he will
further act feeling his own responsibility and avoiding short-sighted
actions, political maximalism as well as reckoning with the state
interests. Unfortunately, he said, the authorities are not likely
to do the same. Quite on the contrary, they do not want to see the
important resources of strengthening Armenia’s positions via settlement
of domestic political problems and establishment of national accord,
Ter-Petrosyan said.