"ARMENIAN DIPLOMACY LOSES TO TURKISH ONE," RUBEN SAFRASTIAN BELIEVES
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian-Turkish relations are
the victim of the created wrong idea of the status-quo in these
relations. In fact, the situation, which is called status-quo, is
created and is the result of the actions of the Turkish diplomacy. This
statement was made by Ruben Safrastian, the Director of the National
Academy of Armenia (NAA) Institute of Oriental Studies, at the
international press conference titled "The countries of the Caucasus
and the Near East as possible partners in the formation process of a
regional security system", which was held on February 7.
In his words, the important details of the created status-quo are: the
refusal of Turkey to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia, the
establishment of a special regime by Turkey on the border with Armenia,
the nomination of preliminary conditions towards Armenia by Turkey,
after the implementation of which the normalization of relations will
become possible. In the estimation of the scientist, unfortunately, the
Armenian diplomacy is losing to the Turkish one. For the past few years
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia has not taken active steps
in the direction of a positive change in the created situation on the
one hand, and in the direction of introducing this situation to the
international community in the appropriate light on the other.
In the estimation of Ruben Safrastian, in fact, Turkey is not
interested in the establishment of diplomatic relations and the
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations at the official level. The
completely different status of the two governments in economical,
military polical, as well as geopolitical respects plays a role here.
On the other hand, Turkey in Armenia is considered to be a real threat
for security. The factor of the not recognized Armenian Genocide by
Turkey and the external-political situation, when the Turkish
leadership threatened Armenia by the use of military forces in 92-93
(in the heat of the Karabakh war) at the highest level, play a role in
this respect.
At the same time Ruben Safrastian pointed out the ways out of the
created situation. In his opinion, different international
organizations should play an important role of a mediator in the
normalization of the relations between the two countries. He mentioned
that the possibility of providing "international squares or forums" for
the arrangement of a direct dialogue between the two societies is the
most possible one. In fact, there is no dialogue between Armenia and
Turkey at a public level, except for isolated cases. However, in his
words, there exist structures, within the frameworks of which normal
work between the two governments is poceeding. In particular, that is
the organization of the Black See Economic Cooperation, within the
frameworks of which it is possible to create "a square", where a
constant dialogue would be made between the representatives of
different public and political forces.
In the words of the scientist, here not only the establishment of a
dialogue is important, but it is also necessary to understand the
processes, which are taking place in the neighbor country. "Processes,
connected with the deepest bases of the Turkish identicity, are
currently taking place in Turkey. This is the moment, when Turkey has
started looking for its identicity and this moment is favourable from
the point of view of the establishment of a large public dialogue
between Armenia and Turkey," Ruben Safrastian stated.