Published since 07.2002
Published on July 04, 2008
TIPTOEING THE TURKISH TIGHTROPE: SARGSYAN SEES MIXED REACTION AT HOME AFTER MOSCOW STATEMENTS
- President Serzh Sargsyan’s statements on Armenia’s relations with Turkey made while on a recent official visit to Russia elicited a negative reaction from the opposition and at least one pro-government party at home. Meeting representatives of the Armenian Diaspora in Moscow early last week, Sargsyan, in particular, unveiled his plans to invite Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Yerevan in September to watch together an upcoming World Cup qualifier between the two countries’ national teams. The move was received enthusiastically by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza, who is the American co-chair of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an international format seeking a negotiated peace in Nagorno-Karabakh. The proposal was also positively assessed by Bryza’s wife, Zeyno Baran, a Turkish-American scholar who currently heads the Center for Eurasian Policy at the Hudson Institute. The top-selling Turkish daily Hurriyet wrote about “a positive raction in Ankara” but reported that no official invitiation had been received in Turkey yet. However, it is Sargsyan’s statement in which he in principle accepted Turkey’s proposal on forming a panel of historians to review the events of early last century that raised most disgruntled voices. “We are not against the establishment of such a commission, but only when the border between our states is opened,” Sargsyan said. The Turkish government’s proposal in 2005 to form a joint commisison of historians to review the correspondence of the early 20th century events in Ottoman Turkey to the notion “genocide” was rejected as unacceptable by Armenia’s then president Robert Kocharyan. And now Armenia’s main opposition groups accuse the head of state of questioning the very fact of genocide by accepting the Turkish proposal in principle. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), a coalition partner with Sargsyan’s Republican Party, also expressed its position on Sargsyan’s statements, reiterating its hard line on relations with Turkey. “I think that if the president of Turkey visits Yerevan, at least one part of our society will express its attitude,” ARF Bureau spokesman Giro Manoyan said in an interview with RFE/RL Monday. Manoyan also said that they had received “the necessary explanation and clarification” from the president regarding his statement on the possibility of establishing an Armenian-Turkish commission. “But in any case, our approach is that there was no need to make such statements and create this confusion in the first place,” Manoyan said. Earlier, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan said that Sargsyan’s statement “does not mean that Armenia renounces former president Robert Kocharyan’s step on including the Genocide issue on the foreign policy agenda.” And Sargsyan’s press secretary Samvel Farmanyan argued that the president’s words were clear and left no room for misunderstanding: “There was a proposal from Turkey to set up an expert commission to study historical facts concerning the genocide. We are not against any studies, even studies of patently obvious and widely recognized realities. However, the formation of such a commission would be logical only after establishing diplomatic relations and opening borders.”
- Aris Ghazinyan
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Today in Armenian history- 1762 The first publication of Yeznik Koghbatsi's "Yeghts Aghandots" by the Markos Publishing House, in Smyrna.
- 1818 The inhabitants of Zeytoon (Western Armenia) rebel against the exactions of the Pasha of Marash.
- 1823 Birth of Grigor Aghatonyan in Constantinople. He died in 1868.
- 1839 Death of Papa Hambardzoomian, composer and author of Armenian phonographs.
- 1847 Death of Hakob Chelepi Tyoozian, the imperial goldsmith. The "Europe" periodical was published by his initiative. He was born on 1793 01 03.
- 1902 International Meeting of Patriots takes place in Brussels. French public-political figure Jean Jaures (amongst others) devotes his speech to the Armenian Cause.
- 1902 An International Conference on the Armenian Question takes place in Brussels.
- 1908 Death of Armenian writer Missak Metsarents. He was born in 1886.
- 1930 Birth of Mher Mkrtchyan (actor). He died in 1993.
- 1992 Artsakh forces leave Martakert (Artsakh).
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