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  • Our Problem Is Inside

    OUR PROBLEM IS INSIDE
    Vardan Oskanian

    http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/politics-lra hos15278.html
    11:07:41 - 23/09/2009

    We are facing a critical historic and political decision as a country
    and as a people and Civilitas believes in the importance of public
    debate. But in the case of these protocols, the debate is going off in
    the wrong direction. Not only are we presented with a fait accompli,
    but they're also telling us nothing is changeable, and those documents
    have no preconditions.

    Reading these protocols one unwillingly comes to the following
    conclusion: That these documents were prepared, somewhere, with
    Turkey's participation, and imposed on the Armenian side, or the
    Armenian side really did negotiate this document having fully
    convinced itself that Armenia's future development and survival is
    indeed completely linked to the opening of this border.

    Those are the only two possible explanations. Otherwise, it's not
    possible to understand the logic of these documents that unequivocally
    give Turkey what it has wanted for 18 years. Let's not fool ourselves,
    let's not mislead our people, let's not trample on our own dignity,
    and let's call things by their name.

    For a moment, let's assume that the border will indeed open. We will,
    as a nation, have to recognize that the border is being opened in
    exchange for important concessions of history and national honor,
    and of our sense of who we are and how we view our role and place
    in this region. We will have conceded our equal place in our future
    relations with Turkey.

    At the base of this document is a defeatist attitude. It reminds me
    of the mood in 1997, when we were being told Armenia has no hope of
    further development, that it can't be a stable, fully independent state
    if the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not quickly resolved. The next 10
    years came to disprove this. Despite the many problems and faults of
    that period, with the border still closed, there was in fact serious
    economic improvement. Our economy saw double-digit growth thanks
    to old and new economic reforms and their continuation. The country
    became more stable, with a new sense of unity, however fragile and
    incomplete, and with broader Diaspora inclusion.

    Today, Armenia's situation is again very difficult. We have an
    inexplicable 18.4% decline in growth, when the average world decline
    is two to three percent. Diaspora and Armenia have never been so
    distant from each other. Our society has never been so polarized. Our
    people have never felt so hopeless about our country's future. Under
    these conditions, old sentiments have emerged again, telling us that
    Armenia can never become a fully independent state and cannot develop
    economically because of the closed border and the unresolved Nagorno
    Karabakh conflict.

    Today, since we've already gone down this road, I can say with even
    greater confidence, that that's not the case.

    We must have trust in our own resources, in our people, in our
    country, in our future. If we successfully completed first generation
    economic reforms, we must move on to the second, third, fourth, fifth
    generations. These hold huge potential for our prosperity. We have an
    ever greater potential source: our unity and common sense of purpose.

    Despite all this, there is also a new area where no one -- not past
    administrations and not this one either - has seriously and honestly
    ventured. Very little has been done in the thorny but vital area
    of political reform. Unfortunately, our state is not a democratic
    state yet. But our whole future and security depend on that one
    word. We have not invested in fortifying and consolidating our
    democratic institutions, and now instead of going forward, we are
    going backwards. Our people, any people, are creative when they are
    free; but we have not created the conditions, the equal playing field,
    an assured rule of law society that protects the freedoms that enable
    prosperity. The closed border has not kept them out. Our succeeding
    governments have not nourished the seeds that are here on our land.

    Our problems are here, at home. The solutions, too, must be sought
    here. No one says no to open borders or to an agreement on Nagorno
    Karabakh. But we must do so in the right way, in a dignified way,
    not with an imposed external solution, but a solution achieved from
    positions of strength among equal partners.

    Signing these documents will not solve our problems. On the contrary,
    they will bring on entirely new setbacks and problems that can only
    be tackled by a unified, free, hopeful society.

    That is not to say protocols with Turkey should not be signed. Of
    course they should. Even these two protocols, with all their major and
    minor unacceptable, controversial, questionable provisions would be
    acceptable, if at the very least, one sentence were removed, and a
    few words changed.

    But as currently formulated, they cannot be signed.

    First, if we were to assume that Turkey, after signing the protocols,
    will ratify them as well, we must ask ourselves, will the opening of
    the Turkish border be worth the price we will pay? This is the price
    they have been asking since 1991, when after the collapse of the
    Soviet Union, Turkey recognized and established diplomatic relations
    with all former soviet republics except Armenia. Since the beginning,
    they've had two demands - that Armenia renounce any territorial claims,
    and that Armenians renounce the international genocide recognition
    campaign. A third demand was added in 1993 - that Armenians withdraw
    from the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh.

    Since that day, those three conditions have been consistently
    repeated. Today, the first two are formalized in the protocol. It's
    there, black on white, and our government has apparently agreed to
    meet those demands. The protocol is worded such that not only do we
    agree to respect the territorial integrity of Turkey, but in the next
    sentence, we consent to renounce our historic rights as well as even
    the theoretical possibility of regaining historic justice.

    Today there are more than 190 countries in the world, and there are
    nearly that many territorial disputes among them. That means that
    pairs of countries with normal relations with each other continue
    to disagree over their borders. A fourth of those disputes are in
    Europe. They have embassies, they trade, they have friendly relations,
    but their diplomats continue to talk and argue, respectfully, over
    their differing interpretations of history and territory. Those
    countries have signed protocols and have diplomatic relations.

    In our region, even with our friendly, brotherly Georgia,
    Armenia and Georgia have not 'recognized current existing
    borders.' Demarcation is just now ongoing between us. Neither have
    Georgia and Azerbaijan. There, demarcation hasn't even begun. But
    there are diplomatic relations. Those other 190 countries have agreed
    to respect each other's territorial integrity, not their current
    existing borders. That is the international practice. There is a clear
    distinction in international relations between respecting territorial
    integrity and recognizing current borders. Look, we often say that
    we recognize Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. But we continue the
    sentence and point out that Nagorno Karabakh has nothing to do with
    Azerbaijan's territorial integrity since it's never been a part of
    independent Azerbaijan.

    Today, we can recognize Turkey's territorial integrity. But how we
    continue that sentence is a right that no one can take from us or
    our future generations.

    A protocol to establish diplomatic relations between two states sets
    the start for a long-term relationship during which two countries
    will tackle and resolve many new and ongoing bilateral problems. When
    the document that formalizes this relationship includes language that
    transforms the relationship to an unequal one, extracting one-sided
    concessions, one wonders about the future of such relations.

    We want relations with Turkey, but we want them with a Turkey that
    wants equal and reciprocal relations with Armenia. We want relations
    with a Turkey that understands that the Europe to which we both aspire
    is not a Europe without disputes, but a Europe where neighbors agree
    to disagree while continuing to live neighborly and in dignity. We
    deserve no less.

    The same concerns exist with the protocol provision about a historical
    subcommission and the 'impartial scientific examination of the
    historical records'. Our neighbor, the successor to a state which
    committed Genocide, has not itself condemned this internationally
    recognized crime, yet expects to use this protocol to formalize its
    own unwillingness to confront history.

    Worse. Armenia's government has acquiesced and agreed to be dragged
    into another endless process of denying and rewriting. Already,
    before the documents are even signed, there is talk of Turkey's asking
    countries to re-visit their own statements of genocide recognition
    and condemnation. Turkey will cite the protocol and proceed with its
    efforts to rewrite history. Armenia and Armenians will expend energy
    and time to confirm historic facts.

    These are the pitfalls that await us if Turkey intends to ratify the
    protocols. But what if this is all intended to show the world that
    they are ready to proceed with open borders, while at the same time
    their parliament withholds ratification until Azerbaijan is satisfied
    with the Nagorno Karabakh resolution?

    This is the fundamental danger. These are not empty fears, this is
    not the product of an active imagination. Prime Minister Erdogan and
    Foreign Minister Davutoglu remind us of this condition daily. Their
    demands on Nagorno Karabakh are Azerbaijan's demands. Already, even
    before the protocols are signed, they continue to speak of those
    conditions. During the last year, there has not been an opportunity
    when Erdogan has spoken of Armenia-Turkey relations, without
    mentioning a return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh,
    and sometimes even return of Nagorno Karabakh itself. There hasn't been
    one opportunity when Erdogan in his bilateral meetings, has not spoken
    about Nagorno Karabakh as an important agenda item. Apparently, Turkey
    is not concerned that as a consequence of such announcements, Armenia
    will withdraw from this process or from signing the document. Thus,
    Turkey is going against the letter and spirit of the document, by
    taking sides with one neighbor, at the expense of another.

    In other words, if the purpose of this document and this process is
    to look to the future, that is not happening.

    The only part about this that is surprising is that our leadership
    either does not hear them, does not want to hear them, or wants to
    believe they really mean something other than what they say.

    For 15 years, Turkey has maintained the blockade, hoping for our
    economic and political capitulation. It didn't happen and will not
    happen. Today, it is they who desperately need to come out of that
    political corner in which they placed themselves, it is they who
    need that border open, and they seem to have found a way to do it,
    at our expense.

    Today, they need to open the border. It is they who are under great
    European pressure within their accession time frames. Today, they
    need to open the border because they are the ones who have economic
    issues at their eastern border that they need resolved. Today, they
    need to open the border because they are the ones in fear of the
    genocide recognition process that has been moving quickly and has
    culminated in great US pressure. Finally, they need the border open
    in order to reinforce their leadership role in this region.

    Instead, our government has been making concessions, in their haste
    to move this process forward. From the beginning, if they were not
    farsighted enough to avoid being put in this position, now that this
    situation has been created, they must find a way to change course.

    They have no choice. We are at a crossroads in our history. We
    have on the table the first bilateral document that the independent
    sovereign Republic of Armenia intends to sign with the Republic of
    Turkey. These documents not for and by third parties, as with the
    countless historical documents of the past where Armenia is a subject
    and not a party, but for the first time in history, a document in
    which Armenia is signing on to its own perceived place in history.

    I wanted to make clear the basis of my criticism: we must and should
    move to normal relations with Turkey. But this document with these
    formulations should not be signed. Indeed, no one is authorized to
    sign this document with such formulations.

    When people hear my criticism, sometimes they accuse me of jealousy. I
    think they do this so that they don't have to have to deal with the
    substance of my criticism but instead, they trivialize it so they
    can dismiss it.

    Nevertheless, I want to confess, I am sometimes envious. But of Turkish
    diplomacy. I would not dare to bring such a document to the table,
    I wouldn't sign it and I don't envy the man who will soon do so.
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