LUCID ARMENIAN POLITICIAN URGES RENAMING ARMENIA TO “EASTERN ARMENIA”
K. JABARIAN
August 11, 2011
Chairman of U-Turn Party Simon Ghonakhchyan lucidly urged Armenia’s
political leadership and President Serzh Sargsyan to rename the
Republic of Armenia, as Republic of Eastern Armenia.
In a letter addressed to Pres. Sargsyan, Ghonakhchyan underlined that
“the proposal has been discussed with a number of political forces
and received an adequate assessment.”
Ghonakhchyan further noted that officially renaming Armenia as
Eastern Armenia “can put an end to the permanent problem of Armenians’
rightful claims.”
He emphasized that the President, as well his future successors,
“as President of the Republic of Armenia, other officials, and
ordinary citizens of the Republic of Armenia, any foreign citizen,
anyone that will rename our country will become a participant in our
rightful claims.”
U-Turn Party’s worthwhile initiative comes at the heels of a
ground-breaking presidential statement last month.
During an Armenian language and literature Olympiad in Dsaghgatsor,
Armenia, on July 23, Krikor Hampartsumian, a Shahumian Middle School
student from the Ararat Region, asked Pres. Sargsyan: “…I would be
interested in knowing whether our future would be reminiscent of a
German diplomat’s description of the Batum Agreement – they gave us
enough room to swim in Lake Sevan, but not enough room to dry up – or a
future that would see the return of Western Armenia along with Ararat?”
To his credit Pres. Sargsyan courageously stated: “It all depends on
you and your generation. … My generation fulfilled its task when it
was necessary in the early 1990’s to defend a part of our homeland –
Karabagh – from enemies. We were able to do that…. Each generation
has its own task, and it must be able to carry it out, and carry it
out well. If you and your peers spare no effort, and if those older
and younger than you act the same way, we will have one of the best
countries in the world. Trust me, a country’s clout is not always
measured by its land mass. The country should be modern, secure,
and prosperous. These are prerequisites that allow a nation to sit
along with prominent, strong, and reputed nations of the world. We
should all fulfill our duties, be active, industrious, and engage in
good deeds. And we can accomplish that very easily. It would not be
the first time in our history that we achieve it. I have no doubts
about it, and I don’t want you to have any doubts either. We are a
nation like a Phoenix that always rises from the ashes.”
In an August 4 article, titled “Erdogan Inadvertently Publicizes
Armenian Territorial Claims from Turkey,” Harut Sassounian, Publisher
of The California Courier, wrote: “Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Erdogan’s hysterical outburst at Armenia’s President last week had
the salutary effect of publicizing to a worldwide audience, Armenian
territorial demands from Turkey! … This episode demonstrates that
papering over historical injustices by pressuring Armenia to sign
defeatist Protocols will not eliminate the deeply-held grievances
of a victimized people. The Armenian-Turkish confrontation will not
be resolved until justice is done to the Armenian nation. Pursuing
justice is the task of all Armenians, this generation and the next.
There will be no peace for Turkey without justice for Armenians!”
Sassounian concluded: “In addition to their gratitude to the impressive
youngster and Pres. Sargsyan, Armenians should be thankful to Prime
Minister Erdogan for his hysterical overreaction which helped bring
Armenian territorial demands to the attention of the international
media and the world community!”
Renaming today’s Armenian state as Eastern Armenia can trigger and
amplify the question, “If today’s Armenia is Eastern Armenia, then
where is West Armenia?”
If a war crime-saddled and partitioned Germany can reunite, illegally
dismembered Armenia should definitely be able to reconstitute.
As a result of the Nazi regime’s defeat, Germany was partitioned. At
the end of World War II, East Germany was occupied by the Soviet
Union. West Germany went on to become a prosperous democracy. Yet
during the period between the post-World War II Armistice and the end
of Soviet occupation of East Germany, the Germans made sure that the
world remembered the existence of both East and West Germany.
Through perseverance, courage and diligence Germans played a vital role
in toppling the Soviet regime and ultimately achieved the reunification
of their country.
After centuries of Seljuk-Turkish-Ottoman occupation Armenia re-emerged
as an independent Democratic Republic of Armenia in 1918.
Then newly re-established Armenian sovereign state became the inheritor
of then reunified Armenian homeland.
Soon after Armenia’s independence, the 28th U.S. President Woodrow
Wilson was officially designated as an international arbiter with the
powers of issuing a binding decision on the border between Armenia
and Turkey. Pres. Wilson awarded Turkish-occupied Western Armenian
provinces of Van, Erzurum, Mamuretulaziz, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Sivas
back to Armenia. This region was extended to the north, up to the
west side of Trabzon Province to provide the Democratic Republic of
Armenia with an outlet to the Black Sea at the port of Trabzon. The
Wilsonian decision reinforced the fact that the Turkish-occupied
lands in Western Armenia must be returned to their rightful owners,
the dispersed and dispossessed Armenians, and Armenia.
But alas, the financial self-interests in the West sabotaged justice
on the one hand, by assisting Turkey escape its obligations in making
amends to Armenians; and the eventual occupation of Eastern Armenia by
the Soviet Union gave the final blow to the process of reunification
of Armenia.
Now it is incumbent upon Turkey and the international community to
honor the still valid, legal and binding arbitral decision of Pres.
Wilson to return the six provinces in Western Armenia to their rightful
owners, the Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora.
Of the twelve million Armenians worldwide, nearly seventy five
percent live in dispersion. Today’s Armenia, historically known as
Eastern Armenia, does not have enough resources to repatriate a
sizeable segment of the Diaspora. It lacks an access to the sea,
when in fact it is entitled along with Western Armenia to belong
to a reunified Armenia that can amply provide its populace with an
access to the Black Sea at Trabizon port; present its inhabitants with
territorial resources enabling them to get socially and economically
re-established, and to become politically reconstituted.
Official Yerevan can champion justice for Armenians everywhere – and
inspire the community of nations to right their wrongs by officially
renaming today’s Armenia as Eastern Armenia.
http://www.armenianlife.com/2011/08/11/lucid-armenian-politician-urges-renaming-armenia-to-%e2%80%9ceastern-armenia%e2%80%9d/