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ARMENIA-TURKEY
ARMEN TSATOURYAN
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
30 Aug 2008
Armenia
Towards New Solutions
The discussions that have started in Turkey after President Serge
Sargsyan's interview to the Turkish `Radical' newspaper testify to the
fact that Turkey has recently started to demonstrate an increased
interest in Armenia.
The Turkish Mass Media conduct thorough discussions over President
Abdullah Gyul's visit to Armenia for watching the Armenia-Turkey
football match to be organized on September the 6th, but the official
circles of the country continue announcing that they haven't made a
final decision yet.
The reason is that the new situation in the Armenian-Turkish relations
has some complex processes underlying behind. It is actually the
`mirror' of the new geopolitical realities developing in the South
Caucasus.
The first and perhaps the most important reality is Russia's active and
biased participation in the regulation of the century-old
Armenian-Turkish conflict.
And the second reality which makes the task of accelerating the
Armenian-Turkish dialogue an urgent issue is the international crisis
`in and around Georgia'.
The ruling elite of Turkey have started to realize that it is no longer
possible to implement their programs in the South Caucasus while
continuing to pursue their traditional policy of isolating Armenia.
Therefore, wh
en is seems on the one hand that the political-military
situation in the region is favorable for our county and on the other
hand Armenia faces the threat of being subjected to a total blockade,
it becomes obvious that we may find a breakthrough in the communication
blockade by way of opening the Kars-Gyumri railroad.
But because the process of unknotting the Armenian-Turkish entangled
string is related to a lot of difficulties, we can't, for the time
being, speak about bringing the parties' viewpoints with regard to
strategic issues closer. All we can do at present is to discuss the
possibilities of opening the Armenian-Turkish `railway corridor' and
initiating a sincere dialogue with the help of Russia, the interested
party.
Serge Sargsyan's invitation addressed to his Turkish counterpart and
the subsequent discussions initiated by that country, as well as the
recent rumors on the probability of constructing the Armenian
`branching' of the Baku-Jeyhan oil pipeline can be accounted for by
this. In such conditions, the presence of the Turkish President at the
September 6 football match may become the `prelude' of the whole
process.
In his recent interview, S. Sargsyan expressed belief that `all the
measures will be taken to receive President Gyul in Yerevan in an
appropriate manner.'
However, right after receiving relevant clarification on the `urgent
=0
Atopic', the correspondent of `Radical' immediately passed on to the
traditional and strictly painful agenda of the Armenian-Turkish
relations. Through the questions asked to the RA President, he tried to
clarify Armenia's official attitudes towards the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide, the probability of presenting territorial claims to
Turkey and other issues.
The answers Serge Sargsyan gave to the Turkish correspondent left no
room for speculating the `package of preconditions' of the Turkish
side.
In particular, the President gave the following answer to the question
concerning the mutual recognition of the borders, `Armenia is for the
UN Charter and a number of other international treaties, and it
respects its international commitments.' And in response to the
question concerning the territorial claims, the President said, `I
don't remember any Armenian official expressing an opinion about
territorial claims.'
By saying that, Serge Sargsyan made it clear that our state creates no
occasion or pretext that may be viewed as an obstacle or put an end to
the Armenian-Turkish dialogue.
The same concerns the correspondent's lame attempt of viewing the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a `precondition of the Armenian
party'. The RA President immediately interrupted the correspondent by
giving the following clear-cut answer, `All over the world,
there's no
Armenian not believing the fact of the Genocide. However, the
recognition of the Genocide is not a precondition for regulating the
relations with Turkey.'
That's to say, the President of Armenia managed to find such
formulations for presenting the painful points in the Armenian-Turkish
relations that do not allow the Turkish side to make all that a
favorable pretext for postponing the solution of the issue of resuming
the bilateral relations and opening the borders.
This new `portion' of political messages the Armenian President sent to
Turkey through `Radical' newspaper actually `shift the ball to the
Turkish half of the field.' Turkish President Abdullah Gyul has now no
pretext for rejecting the invitation of visiting Yerevan and excluding
our country from regional programs.
It now rests with Russia, our strategic ally, to make its unhesitant
intervention in the process of lifting the blockade of Armenia.
ARMEN TSATOURYAN
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
30 Aug 2008
Armenia
Towards New Solutions
The discussions that have started in Turkey after President Serge
Sargsyan's interview to the Turkish `Radical' newspaper testify to the
fact that Turkey has recently started to demonstrate an increased
interest in Armenia.
The Turkish Mass Media conduct thorough discussions over President
Abdullah Gyul's visit to Armenia for watching the Armenia-Turkey
football match to be organized on September the 6th, but the official
circles of the country continue announcing that they haven't made a
final decision yet.
The reason is that the new situation in the Armenian-Turkish relations
has some complex processes underlying behind. It is actually the
`mirror' of the new geopolitical realities developing in the South
Caucasus.
The first and perhaps the most important reality is Russia's active and
biased participation in the regulation of the century-old
Armenian-Turkish conflict.
And the second reality which makes the task of accelerating the
Armenian-Turkish dialogue an urgent issue is the international crisis
`in and around Georgia'.
The ruling elite of Turkey have started to realize that it is no longer
possible to implement their programs in the South Caucasus while
continuing to pursue their traditional policy of isolating Armenia.
Therefore, wh
en is seems on the one hand that the political-military
situation in the region is favorable for our county and on the other
hand Armenia faces the threat of being subjected to a total blockade,
it becomes obvious that we may find a breakthrough in the communication
blockade by way of opening the Kars-Gyumri railroad.
But because the process of unknotting the Armenian-Turkish entangled
string is related to a lot of difficulties, we can't, for the time
being, speak about bringing the parties' viewpoints with regard to
strategic issues closer. All we can do at present is to discuss the
possibilities of opening the Armenian-Turkish `railway corridor' and
initiating a sincere dialogue with the help of Russia, the interested
party.
Serge Sargsyan's invitation addressed to his Turkish counterpart and
the subsequent discussions initiated by that country, as well as the
recent rumors on the probability of constructing the Armenian
`branching' of the Baku-Jeyhan oil pipeline can be accounted for by
this. In such conditions, the presence of the Turkish President at the
September 6 football match may become the `prelude' of the whole
process.
In his recent interview, S. Sargsyan expressed belief that `all the
measures will be taken to receive President Gyul in Yerevan in an
appropriate manner.'
However, right after receiving relevant clarification on the `urgent
=0
Atopic', the correspondent of `Radical' immediately passed on to the
traditional and strictly painful agenda of the Armenian-Turkish
relations. Through the questions asked to the RA President, he tried to
clarify Armenia's official attitudes towards the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide, the probability of presenting territorial claims to
Turkey and other issues.
The answers Serge Sargsyan gave to the Turkish correspondent left no
room for speculating the `package of preconditions' of the Turkish
side.
In particular, the President gave the following answer to the question
concerning the mutual recognition of the borders, `Armenia is for the
UN Charter and a number of other international treaties, and it
respects its international commitments.' And in response to the
question concerning the territorial claims, the President said, `I
don't remember any Armenian official expressing an opinion about
territorial claims.'
By saying that, Serge Sargsyan made it clear that our state creates no
occasion or pretext that may be viewed as an obstacle or put an end to
the Armenian-Turkish dialogue.
The same concerns the correspondent's lame attempt of viewing the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a `precondition of the Armenian
party'. The RA President immediately interrupted the correspondent by
giving the following clear-cut answer, `All over the world,
there's no
Armenian not believing the fact of the Genocide. However, the
recognition of the Genocide is not a precondition for regulating the
relations with Turkey.'
That's to say, the President of Armenia managed to find such
formulations for presenting the painful points in the Armenian-Turkish
relations that do not allow the Turkish side to make all that a
favorable pretext for postponing the solution of the issue of resuming
the bilateral relations and opening the borders.
This new `portion' of political messages the Armenian President sent to
Turkey through `Radical' newspaper actually `shift the ball to the
Turkish half of the field.' Turkish President Abdullah Gyul has now no
pretext for rejecting the invitation of visiting Yerevan and excluding
our country from regional programs.
It now rests with Russia, our strategic ally, to make its unhesitant
intervention in the process of lifting the blockade of Armenia.