WE NEVER DO ANYTHING AIMLESSLY
Lilit Poghosyan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
04 Dec 08
Armenia
During his recent visit to Baku, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babajan
once again calmed down his Azeri brothers, saying that the task of
liberating Karabakh and its surrounding areas from the "Armenian
occupation" was a matter to be dealt with not only by Turkey but also
Azerbaijan and that his country has been standing by Azerbaijan since
1918 and will always stand by it in future. Isn’t Armenia playing into
the hands of Turkey which is pretending to conduct an Armenian-Turkish
dialogue in an attempt to cheat Europe?
In response to our questions, EDWARD SHARMAZANOV, member of the RPA
parliamentary faction presents his comments.
"Armenia and the Armenian authorities play their own game which is in
the interests of the nation and the state. This is a fact. President
Serge Sargsyan’s recent initiatory policy enshrined in his pre-election
program is aimed at that.
As regards Turkey’s partial approach, I don’t think the fact that
the Turkish Government has always been standing by Azerbaijan since
1918 (when Azerbaijan was formed as an independent state unit) is
something new for anyone. And the Government of Turkey was the first
to voice protests in different international conferences, claiming
that Karabakh form part of Azerbaijan or remain under its control.
There are a lot of books, as well as scientific articles. In
particular, Head of the Genocide Museum Hayk Demoyan has done serious
research in that field, giving detailed description of Turkey’s
military, financial, economic and political assistance to Azerbaijan.
But nonetheless, we live in this region, and whether or not we want
it, Turkey is our neighbor; so we must try to settle the problematic
questions between our countries. And to do that, it is first of all
necessary to have diplomatic relations."
"But the Turkish side has not given up its traditional approach of
establishing a relationship with preconditions. Don’t the bilateral
or trilateral negotiations in the Turkey-Azerbaijan-Armenia format
become aimless in view of this fact?"
"We never do anything aimlessly. I think the goal is very clear. That
is, to have normal relations with the neighboring countries, including
those with which we have serious problems. And let’s note that this
approach is also enshrined in the National Security Strategy.
If, in the 21st century, we have adopted democratic reforms and are
guided by the rules of a civilized game, then there is no alternative
to the Armenian party’s attitude expressed by President Serge Sargsyan
who proposed the Turkish side to establish diplomatic ties without
any preconditions.
The establishment of diplomatic ties without preconditions doesn’t mean
to forget about the recognition of the Genocide or make unilateral
concessions with regard to the Karabakh issue. No. Both President
Serge Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan have many a
time announced that the Armenia-Turkish relations should be regulated
without any preconditions.
Naturally, both the international recognition of the Genocide and
the pro-Armenian settlement of the Karabakh conflict remain in the
foreign policy agenda."