ARMENIA DISPLAYS AMATEUR APPROACH TO GENOCIDE ISSUE, WHILE TURKEY PROFESSIONAL – ARA PAPYAN
16:30 / 17.10.2014
Nyut.am conducted an interview with the head of Modus Vivendi think
tank, political analyst Ara Papyan.
– Mr Papyan how is our country getting prepared for the 100 centennial
of the Armenian Genocide?
– Of course certain work is being carried out but the accent is more
made on the number. The events are the same, their number has grown
– publication of books, conduction of conferences, organization of
exhibitions. While I think that on the occasion of centennial we
should have done completely other thing. First of all I am speaking
about preparation of legal package. It relates to the territorial
issues of Armenia, property rights of the Armenia organizations. This
is what should be done but is not. The only thing was the statement
voiced by the Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I.
– Is it necessary to tie our demands with the genocide anniversary?
– No. Of course, not, it could have been done ten years ago, twenty
years ago, the centennial is an occasion when many doors will open. It
is important to use the opportunity and present our issues.
– Do we have relevant specialists to carry out this work in a
proper way?
– As to the preparation of legal package, unfortunately we do not have
specialists. We have very few international right specialists. But
they should not necessarily be Armenians, we can cooperate with
foreigners as well. The thing is that in such case the order must
come from the state.
– Starting from midst of 19 century, the international historiography,
with the belief of many, purposely is presenting Armenian history in
a distorted way. What is the situation today?
– I cannot claim that it was done on purpose. Just many things
happened. There was a European-centered theory – the best and the
progressive belongs to Europe, thus the oldest things come from
Europe. The approach is the following if the country is poor it cannot
have triumphant past. I want to say that everything is politicized
and the history as well.
As far as the world is very big, there are thousands of universities
and expressing new opinions has become very easy.
– Will it impede the proper presentation of the Armenian genocide on
the anniversary and the world’s proper response to it?
– Of course it will. It impedes now as well. Scientific bureaucracy
is printing books if being allocated money, and it is natural. Who
decides, whose book must be published?
Unfortunately the majority of those dealing with humanitarian sciences
do not know the language and cannot study the first hand information.
– Don’t we have genocide experts, Turkology experts to be able to
present our issue in a proper way?
– Of course we don’t. The thing is that it is a profession demanding
long lasting hard work. It supposes not only knowledge of Turkish,
but Arab, Persian languages as well.
The state was to deal with the issue of preparation of such experts.
Today scholars receive miserable salary thus people prefer to work
as Turkish translator as they are to earn to keep their families.
– Does it mean that we will lose to Turks? They do not have the issue
of money.
– Look what they have done. During the recent period they involved
many young people in the anti-Armenia fight, they taught them Armenian
and sent here to study. After they returned, they again studied in the
best universities . These people receive high salary and do their job.
They are young and will give their products in 25 years.
If today we are in condition of facing problems for acquiring relevant
literature how can we fight and win?