Avetik Chalabyan, the coordinator of “Hayakve” national civil union, sent a message from the detention center.

“Surrender to Turkish mercy or fight to the end? choose the fight.

Dear friends,

the inaugural session of the newly elected National Assembly forced me to break my silence and address the key point of the debate that took place there. That provision (and only on the second day of discussions) was formulated by CP MP Arman Yeghoyan, who stated that the main contradiction in this parliament concerns whether we want to see a sovereign and independent Armenia, or a state dependent on Russia and guided by it.

This is, of course, a beneficial formulation from the CP’s point of view, because it tries to present itself as the bearer of the first approach. However, it is fundamentally false and distorts reality. And the reality is, do we want to see ourselves integrated into the Turkish world, an anti-national semi-state unit, or do we want to build a national state, relying on the support of the Russian Federation and other natural allies?

The basis of this contradiction is the thesis persistently circulated by the Communist Party that anti-Turkishness was sown within Armenia by the Russian Empire in order to make Armenia a tool of its own expansionist policy. This is also a false thesis. The study of the entire history of Turkish-Armenian relations shows that the contradictions between us were born and deepened even before the advance of the Russian Empire in our region and are due to several simple facts:

a) The Turks (Ottomans) had conquered the entire Middle East militarily and considered themselves the rulers of the peoples living there. They considered the Christian nations and, in particular, the Armenians, simply as slaves, and treated them like slaves.

(b) The Ottoman Empire had a powerful army, but its administrative system was shamefully backward and corrupt. As a result, Armenians lived under double taxation, were completely disenfranchised, and were regularly forced to rebel against the injustices taking place in different parts of the empire.

c) Later, the Turks, having lost all their European territories, turned their eyes to the East, to Turan, and saw the Armenians as the biggest obstacle to be overcome on the way to uniting Turkey and Turan.

During the last 150 years, be it 1894-1896. Hamid massacres, 1915 Genocide, 1918 and 1920. The genocidal invasions of Eastern Armenia, 2023. The depopulation of Artsakh or the silent depopulation of Nakhichevan during the Soviet years, all these actions had one goal: to eliminate the Armenian barrier between Turkey and Turan, and unfortunately, they mostly succeeded despite the stubborn resistance of our people.

Today, the new KP strategists have come to the scene and, in fact, through the lips of their leader, they claim that the only way to save us is to become a bridge between Turkey and Turan, because the barrier is no longer working and will collapse sooner or later. When making this claim, you should ask the gentleman a simple question: Turkey today has about 85 million inhabitants, the 5 Turkish states of Turan have about the same number, while Armenia has about 3 million inhabitants. If we become a bridge in the Turkish territory with a population of 170 million, will we not sooner or later dissolve into it and become Turks ourselves, and or try to remain Armenian and Christian, return to the slave status of 200 years ago, when 170 million (and in the future more) Muslim Turks will again treat Armenians as a disenfranchised caste, and at the opportune moment, deport them or massacre them, as they did. have been many times in the past, including 3 years ago.

This is the main question of our controversy, and each of us must answer this question.
I have answered this question for myself, and yes, I realize that the answer I gave implies a greater dependence on Iran, also on India, China and all those who are ready to face the Turkish expansion into Central Asia, and who consider us, the Armenians, as a natural ally.

—