The intended move of the UN Development Program Regional Center for Europe to Istanbul has caused resentment
15 Armenian NGOs wrote a letter to Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the UN, on February 18, in which they explained why they thought that the intended move of the UNDP Regional Center for Europe from Bratislava to Istanbul was unacceptable.
The organizations think it is illogical and inappropriate to move the center to Turkey, noting that Turkey “committed genocide against the Armenian people on their own historical homeland, which was started on April 24, 1915, in Istanbul. Turkey also committed massive killings of other national minorities, including Greeks and Assyrians. The Turkish government doesn’t admit to those crimes, although the genocide against the Armenian people has been recognized and condemned by a set of member states of the UN.” They also noted that Turkey had been blockading Armenia for 20 years, which had quite a negative impact on the country’s economy.
“Disregarding all complaints, it retains Article 301 of the Constitution, which limits freedom of speech and free development of national minorities, encourages intolerance toward national minorities at the state level, which regularly causes internal conflicts and physical violence, a striking example of which is the murder of Hrant Dink, a prominent journalist of Armenian descent,” the letter reads. The next reason is that Turkey hasn’t established diplomatic relations with some states in the region, including countries covered by the UNDP Regional Center for Europe. “That fact will considerably impede the participation of Armenian delegations, including NGOs, in the UNDP activities.”
Read also
The authors of the letter also stated that Turkey was located in an unstable region, taking into account the armed conflicts in Turkey’s neighboring countries, as well as the regular conflicts of Turkey itself with countries in the region. “We are convinced that the possible move of the UNDP Regional Center for Europe to Turkey will diminish the efficiency of its activities, will create unfavorable conditions for cooperation between countries in the region.
We also realize that Turkey’s financial assistance to the UNDP is very important, but the UN has always preferred justice and human rights to other priorities, including financial. We hope that the UN will adhere to its own principles and will take into account the above-mentioned risks and obstacles in the way of moving the UNDP Regional Center for Europe to Turkey,” the Armenian organizations’ letter reads.
Aravot was informed by Karine Danielyan, the president of the Association for Sustainable Human Development, that there was an intention to move other programs, besides the UNDP, too – for example, UNESCO. “Imagine we raise an issue of cultural and historical heritage with UNSECO; well, try to raise that issue in Turkey…. Certainly, it doesn’t have an impact as far as neutral countries are concerned, but a country like Turkey will have a huge impact, and we will face certain obstacles during the work with the UN. Having contacts with international organizations, we can see that citizens of Turkey and Azerbaijan are directly employed by many organizations, and it seems that it has no impact, but they transfer the international organizations, international forums to their countries,” K. Danielyan stated, informing that the UN Development Program Bratislava Center director was a Turkish woman. Ms. Danielyan said that Azerbaijan and Turkey closely followed the competitions of all international organizations and filled the vacancies, after which they coordinated the whole anti-Armenian work.
Although the open letter was sent on January 18, Ms. Danielyan informed us that there had been no response from the UN yet. “This is a simple issue, the mail should go to Bratislava through the UN Office, then to New York. It is not ruled out that the director of the Bratislava Center will decide that she shouldn’t send that letter.” K. Danielyan thinks that “every Armenian should be an ambassador,” since steps are taken in international organizations toward Armenian organizations, which are in the interests of Azerbaijan and Turkey.
In response to Aravot’s question whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia was aware of that, whether they had raised that issue with it, Ms. Danielyan said yes. The Public Council intends to hold a discussion in the next few days; at first, there was an intention to invite all ambassadors accredited in the Republic of Armenia and present the situation to them, but then it was decided to discuss this issue in the National Assembly External Relations Standing Commission. The Public Council has already applied to the National Assembly Speaker; a meeting, which representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also attend, is intended to be held in the short-run.
EMMA GABRIELYAN
Aravot Daily
