Category: Southern Caucasus

Armenian Leader Defends Turkey Rapprochement

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian

October 02, 2009

YEREVAN — Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian says that normalizing relations between Yerevan and Ankara won’t thwart greater international recognition of the Armenian genocide or result in Armenian concessions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reports.

In a spirited defense of his government’s rapprochement with Turkey, Sarkisian told a group of 36 pro-establishment members of the presidential Public Council in Yerevan on September 30 that if they are “unable or unprepared” to negotiate with Turkey, why ” become [should Armenia have become] independent in the first place?”

Council head Vazgen Manukian told RFE/RL that the members “discussed all the pluses and minuses, drew a line, added things up, and got a [positive result].”

But two members of the group, who are historians, expressed concern over a Turkish-Armenian subcommission that would look into the World War I-era mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Sarkisian acknowledged their concerns but reminded them that “no sensible Armenian can forget the genocide” and assured them that the Turks will not be able to control the commission single-handedly because both sides will be equally represented on the panel.

https://www.rferl.org/a/Armenian_Leader_Defends_Turkey_Rapprochement/1841989.html

October 2, 2009
Uzbek, Turkmen Reps Skip Turkic-Speaking Assembly

The Uzbek parliament building in Tashkent (file photo)

October 02, 2009

BAKU — Uzbek and Turkmen deputies did not attend the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-Speaking countries in Baku, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani and Uzbek services report.

Azerbaijani political analyst Ilgar Mammadov told RFE/RL that a possible reason the deputies skipped the September 22-23 session is because Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan lack “genuine parliaments” and were prohibited by their governments from attending.

He added that the parliaments in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan have turned into “notary’s offices” that rubberstamp bills put forth by their governments. Mammadov said that among the Turkic-speaking countries some degree of “genuine parliamentary activity” can be found only in Turkey.

Uzbek political analyst Farhod Tolipov told RFE/RL that Uzbekistan did not attend the assembly for “subjective reasons.” He explained that slogans such as “Turkestan is our home” — a reference to a pan-Turkic entity — could be frequently heard in Uzbekistan, but in recent years Central Asian countries have become more nationalistic and distanced themselves from each other.

Initiated by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev in 2006, the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-Speaking Countries is designed to gather delegates from Turkey, Azerbaijan, and the five Central Asian countries. The next meeting of the assembly is to be held in Astana in 2010.

https://www.rferl.org/a/Uzbek_Turkmen_Reps_Skip_TurkicSpeaking_Assembly/1842008.html

October 2, 2009
Violent Protests In Paris Greet Armenian President

France — Eiffel Tower, Paris in lights, 28Mar2009

02.10.2009

(AP) – Violent protests broke out Friday at the start of Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian’s tour of Armenian communities worldwide, with demonstrators in Paris shouting “traitor!” at him and decrying his plans to establish ties with Turkey.



Sarkisian embarked on the tour – which will also take him to the United States, Russia and Lebanon – to seek support for his landmark bid for diplomatic ties with Turkey after a century of enmity. But at least 200 protesters from the Armenian Diaspora in France showed up at a public appearance in Paris.



Riot police fought back belligerent demonstrators, a few dozen of whom shouted “No!” and punched riot shields. Police dragged several protesters away kicking and screaming. Sarkisian later put in a brief appearance, walking past protesters shouting through bullhorns.



The killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire has been the main barrier to reconciliation with Turkey. Armenians have long fought to persuade other governments to consider it a genocide. Turkey rejects the label and says the death toll is inflated.



The scuffles Friday erupted at a memorial event at a monument to an Armenian priest and composer targeted in the massacres. Earlier in the day, Sarkisian had lunch in Paris with crooner Charles Aznavour, one of France’s most famous Armenians, before meeting with members of the vocal Armenian community here, Sarkisian’s spokesman Samvel Farmanian said.



After Paris, Sarkisian is set to continue what is dubbed a “pan-Armenian tour” with visits to New York, Los Angeles, Beirut and Rostov-on-Don in Russia to discuss a planned meeting Oct. 10 when the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers are expected to sign the deal to establish ties.



Armenians abroad – estimated at 5.7 million – outnumber the 3.2 million living in Armenia itself, the smallest of the ex-Soviet republics. The largest communities are in Russia (2 million), the United States (1.4 million), Georgia (460,000) and France (450,000), according to government data.

October 2, 2009
TurkPA intends to get international status

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkish-speaking countries (TurkPA) will work to obtain international status.

“In the future TurkPA will firstly act as a guest and observer in the international organizations. Then it can obtain a membership,” TurkPA Secretary General Ramil Hasanov told the official Web site of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.

Hasanov said all international organizations will be informed about the establishment of TurkPA and they will study the experience of parliamentary associations of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In the future, the PA will make efforts to get Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as well as Turkic speaking autonomous republics involved, Hasanov added.

The TurkPA General Secretariat will launch its activity on Jan.1, 2010.

TurkPA was established at a plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries held with the participation of parliamentary delegations of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey on Sept. 28 in Baku.

http://www.today.az/news/politics/56161.html

October 2, 2009
Armenian Americans Divided Over Thaw With Turkey

Armenia — Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian meets with the leadership of the Armenian Assembly of America in New York.

01.10.2009

Emil Danielyan

The leading Armenian organizations in the United States expressed conflicting views on Armenia’s dramatic rapprochement with Turkey as President Serzh Sarkisian started on Thursday a week-long intercontinental visit aimed at addressing Diaspora concerns about the U.S.-backed process.

Sarkisian will spend the next few days touring major Armenian communities in France, the United States, Lebanon and Russia and discussing his conciliatory policy on Turkey with their prominent members. “I am not going in order to convince them, I am
going to listen to them and tell them what I think,” he told the presidential Public Council on Wednesday.

According to a statement issued by his office, Sarkisian will first meet in Paris on Friday with leaders of Armenian community leaders from France and other European nations. He will then proceed to New York for similar discussions with representatives of the larger and more influential Armenian-American community. Among invited to the meeting are leaders of a U.S. chapter of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), one of the most vocal critics of the Turkish-Armenian agreements announced on August 31.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Dashnaktsutyun’s Central Committee in the eastern United States said it has accepted the invitation. “But, let us be clear: We will attend this meeting because we do not want to forgo an opportunity to voice our strong and uncompromising opposition to these dangerous protocols,” it said. “We will do so directly and forthrightly, letting the president know that the protocols he defends actually betray the national rights of the entire Armenian Nation: Armenia, the Armenian Diaspora, and Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The statement said Sarkisian’s charm offensive is “not only late but lacking in political and moral sincerity” as both Yerevan and Ankara have made clear that they will sign the two fence-mending protocols without any changes whatever the outcome of the ongoing debates in both countries. It also reiterated Dashnaktsutyun’s arguments against a deal which the nationalist party says will make it harder for the Diaspora to gain greater international recognition of the Armenian genocide. “The protocols will satisfy the articulated aims of today’s Turkish government to silence the enduring and still unanswered ‘Armenian Question,’” the statement said.

The Dashnaktsutyun-controlled Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is one of the two main Armenian groups that have for decades been lobbying the U.S. Congress to pass a formal genocide resolution. The other, more moderate group, the Armenian Assembly of America, has been far more supportive of the thaw in Armenia’s relations with its historical foe.

The Assembly joined on Thursday the Diaspora’s largest charity, the Armenian General Benevolent Union, as well as two U.S. dioceses of the Armenian Apostolic Church in issuing a statement that welcomed Sarkisian’s policy and the controversial agreements in particular. “The protocols announced on August 31st represent a marked change from the past,” they said. “Turkey has now publicly committed to establish normal relations without preconditions, and the process has yielded remarkable progress.”

“The path ahead will not be easy and will undoubtedly involve new twists and turns along the way. That makes it all the more important to understand that this is not the time to advance other agendas at the expense of Armenia’s future,” the statement added in a thinly veiled attack on Dashnaktsutyun. “At this critical moment, we believe that the President of Armenia deserves our support.”

The Dashnaktsutyun statement deplored such views, claiming that they are not shared by the majority of an estimated one million Americans of Armenian descent. “We consider it likely that — for whatever reason — this minority will continue to maintain that unjustified position,” it said.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1841372.html

October 1, 2009
Armenian FM Under Opposition Fire

Armenia – Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian speaks at parliamentary hearings on Armenian-Turkish relations, Yerevan, 01Oct, 2009

01.10.2009

Irina Hovannisian

Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian faced angry opposition criticism on Thursday as he explained and defended his government’s agreements with Turkey during special public hearings held in the Armenian parliament.

The hearings, featuring not only parliament members but extraparliamentary politicians, historians and pundits, were part of “internal political consultations” promised by the Armenian and Turkish governments. The opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) and Zharangutyun (Heritage) parties used them for reaffirming their strong rejection of the agreements envisaging the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations.

Nalbandian sought to disprove their “artificial” claims that Yerevan has effectively accepted long-standing Turkish preconditions for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two states and reopening of their border.

“Are there any preconditions? No and once again no,” he said. “Are we casting doubt on the fact of the Armenian genocide? Are we hampering international recognition of the Armenian genocide? No and once again no.

“Is there a connection between the finalized documents and the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiating process? None and once again no.”

Armenia — Armen Rustamian, a leader of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation, speaks during parliamentary hearings.

Dashnaktsutyun and Zharangutyun leaders were unconvinced by these assurances. “Wittingly or unwittingly, we have accepted the Turkish preconditions and allowed an extremely serious deviation from our foreign policy course,” said Armen Rustamian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader who chairs the parliament’s foreign relations committee, which organized the hearings.

Rustamian also criticized the government for stressing the importance of open borders for Armenia’s long-term economic development. He drew parallels between that stance and the past conciliatory discourse of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian.

Tigran Torosian, a former parliament speaker who is now highly critical of Armenia’s current leadership, likewise claimed that it has made “unilateral concessions” during the more than yearlong dialogue with the Turks. “What is Turkey giving up in return for our concessions?” he said. “Opening the border, which is its international obligation? Turkey is simply doing what it was supposed to do in the first place.”

Predictably, the opposition critics vehemently objected to the planned creation of a Turkish-Armenian “sub-commission” of historians what will look into the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. “The creation of that sub-commission presupposes the erasing of all evidence that the genocide took place,” said Vahan Hovannisian, another Dashnaktsutyun leader. “It means that the evidence is not that weighty.”

Nalbandian countered that the panel will not seek to determine whether the Armenian massacres constituted a genocide and will only serve as a forum for Turkish-Armenian discussions on “numerous issues coming from the past.” “This sub-commission has no other mandate,” he said. “Nor does it have any time limits because we realize that this process can last very long. Maybe 10 years, maybe 20 years, maybe 50 years, or maybe longer.”

“The idea is that by talking, opening up to each other, our societies could reach some common denominators,” added the minister.

Eduard Sharmazanov, a parliament deputy from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) also saw little cause for concern. “It is the party which has always falsified history that should be more worried,” said Sharmazanov. “It’s Turkey that has falsified history. And that sub-commission could serve as a ticking time bomb for Turkey.”

The HHK and its two junior coalition partners, which together control the vast majority of parliament seats, reaffirmed their full support for the agreements in a further sign that their ratification by the National Assembly is a forgone conclusion. The HHK’s parliamentary leader, Galust Sahakian, claimed that President Serzh Sarkisian and his political allies are undaunted by the opposition criticism.

The bitter debate on the issue, explained Sahakian, is only making the ruling coalition “more vigilant.” “The more blows we get, the more manly we become,” he said.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1841367.html

October 1, 2009