Armenian National Committee-International
Just last month, on February 11, the Armenian National Committee International issued a statement outlining the current authorities’ dangerous approaches vis-a-vis Turkey, after Foreign Minister Ara Aivazyan discussed Armenia-Turkey relations in Armenia’s National Assembly.
As such, an opinion was expressed that the Government of the Republic of Armenia was going to accept the status quo created by the Turkish-Azerbaijani axis in its aggression against the Republic of Artsakh, including the the occupation of a large parts of Artsakh, deportation and ethnic cleansing.
Second, the Armenian government is effectively acknowledging that there are no more pressing issues in Armenia-Turkey relations than the Karabakh issue and the authorities seem to be preparing to forget the policy of garnering international recognition of and reparations for the Armenian Genocide, as well as issues related to the Armenia-Turkey border.
As recently as March 16, the ARF Bureau, taking into consideration the statements of various officials, international-regional developments and its own information, strongly warned the leadership, which has lost its legitimacy and has handed over a large part of the homeland to the enemy, not to enter into such negotiations with Turkey that could allow it to achieve it 100-year-old goals.
Recent events, especially statements made by the prime minister, the secretary of the security council and the vice-speaker of the National Assembly, once again prove that the authorities of Armenia, who capitulated, are pursuing a succinct policy—guised as normalizing relations with Turkey and ending blockades—which aims to forget the historical past of our people, to renounce the international demand for recognition of the Armenian Genocide, to legally recognize the de facto Armenia-Turkey interstate border, to renounce the Karabakh issue, and with it the restoration of Artsakh’s territorial integrity and status, and to make the territory of the Republic of Armenia a geographical corridor connecting the two Turkish states.
We would like to emphasize that the Armenian authorities, speaking of a comprehensive unblocking of regional infrastructure, are directly accepting Turkey as a party to the Karabakh conflict, and view the opening of the Armenia-Turkey border only in the context of a pro-Turkish settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which has been Ankara’s talking point for decades.
The person clinging the post of Armenia’s Prime Minister continues to make pedestrian assessments about the realities of Turkey’s anti-Armenian hostility. Whereas, it is evident that Armenians’ position is not a consequence of the equal historical footing between the Armenian and Turkish peoples, but rather Turkey’s planned annihilation of Armenians and their homeland. In its turn, Turkey’s hostile policy is conditioned by an imaginary plot for physical retribution by the Armenians against the Turkish people, but as a continuation of the centuries-old anti-Armenian policy of its predecessors, with the same pan-Turkish and neo-Ottoman goals. In other word, Turkey views us as an enemy, since Armenia is an obstacle to Turkey’s implementation of its expansionist policies and because we do not renounce our historical memory, identity, as we have shown in the past through our dignified approach.
It is extremely sad that these obvious realities, which are based on our people’s national pain and open wound, have to be explained to the person holding the post of the Prime Minister of Armenia.
It find it important to note that today Turkey continues to pursue an openly hostile policy toward the Republic of Armenia and all Armenians, the most obvious manifestation of which was the involvement of the Turkey’s military and government, as well as the overt and wide-spread inclusion of the Turkish armed forces in the recent Karabakh war.
The Armenian authorities have begun to manipulate the intelligence of the people with baseless and vain words about regional peace and coexistence. Armenia is the only country in the region that has been the stable guarantor of regional peace. Peace in the region has been broken as a result of Turkish-Azerbaijani aggression against us, and Armenia is the last country where peace should be preached. Our people know best the price of peace, but by the imperative of their history they know that undignified peace only paves the way for future bloody wars.
The Armenian authorities are shamelessly continuing this so-called false pretense of peace even at a time when high-ranking Turkish and Azerbaijani officials have openly expressed their ambitions for the territory of the Republic of Armenia.
As for the fate of the Armenia-Turkey border, it must be taken into account that the border was closed illegally by the Turkish state as a hostile act. Armenia did not play a role in closing the Armenia-Turkey border, so the Turkish state should take the first step in opening the border. In this context, Turkey expects Armenia to renounce the policy of genocide claims and the Karabakh issue, which, apparently, was achieved through the capitulating Armenian authorities.
We, once again, are warning the latter, that a government which denies the Armenian Genocide and has effectively resigned from the Karabakh issue is doomed in Armenia, as is such a policy. If the leadership kowtows to Turkish demands and attempts to enter into dubious negotiations with Turkey, at the expense of the people’s inalienable rights, our people will never allow that. As a consequence, we will have dark pages in our history devoted to pro-Turkish and treasonous leaders.
In order to ensure the security of the republics of Armenia and Artsakh and to defend our national interests, it is imperative that the leadership of Armenia immediately leaves and political forces with national inclinations take over the heavy burden of taking our country out of this difficult and dangerous predicament.
ANC International
March 29, 2021