Talking about the intention of the Turkish government to cease flights from Yerevan to Van and from Yerevan to Istanbul, political scientist Gagik Hambaryan said during a conversation with www.aravot.am that by taking this step, Turkey goes for a confrontation not only with the Republic of Armenia, but also with the European Union and the US, which put a lot of effort so that the Zurich protocols were signed in 2009. “It was stated a few days ago that the Yerevan-Van-Yerevan flight would be made on April 2, which caused hysteria in the Azeri government. As always, the Azeri President’s staff, as well as the representatives of Yeni Azerbaijan, an Azeri party, made statements that this step of Turkey wasn’t in line with the existing brotherly relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey at all and generally wasn’t in line with the interests of the Turkish people. By saying ‘Turkish,’ I mean both the Azeris and the Turks. And a few days later, the Turkish government stated that the first Yerevan-Van-Yerevan flight that should have been made on April 2 or 3 was suspended, and the Turkish
state services don’t allow the travel agencies that should have organized this flight to make it. This caused a lot of joy in the Azeri government, which had stated earlier that all that meant that the Turkish government betrayed Azerbaijan, and if the Yerevan-Van-Yerevan flight was made, the Turkey-Armenia border would be opened. Certainly, this doesn’t correspond to the reality, and I deem it absurd. Unfortunately, this was not enough; a couple of days ago, the Turkish mass media officially informed that starting from April 1, the Turkish government would ban the Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan flight, which had always been made, regardless of the mess in the Armenia-Turkey relations; mainly traders and tourists travelling from Armenia to Turkey used it,” Gagik Hambaryan says. According to the political commentator, this is a serious slap in the face for the persons who pursue the foreign policy of the Republic of Armenia, it is also a serious blow to the President of the Republic of Armenia who, for some reason, has been cherishing strong hopes up until now that the Turkish government will implement the Armenia-Turkey protocols signed in Zurich one day. “I must note that although the Turkish state officials have not confirmed yet that this flight will not be made starting from April 1, at the same time, the Armenian side hasn’t officially stated whether it will be made or not; so the probability that the Turkish government will ban the flight is very high. This once again shows that the Armenian policy toward the Turkish government and the Turkish state is absolutely wrong. Turkey has used those protocols over the past few years to blackmail the Republic of Armenia and the international community that if any country recognizes the Armenian Genocide at the legislative or any other level, it will seriously damage the non-existing Armenia-Turkey relations. I also think that if it suddenly turns out that giving in to the Azeri blackmail, the Turkish government will really ban the Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan flight, then the Armenian side will have to not only send a respective note, but also renounce the protocols signed in Zurich. And state that we can make no further concessions, because the Turkish government hasn’t made any specific proposal or any specific step toward at least normalizing the Armenia-Turkey relations. I have noticed one thing that the more we concede to the Turks, the more demands the Turks make to the Armenian side, and the demands are more impudent. At the same time, we should not forget that the Armenia-Turkey relations have been exploited at the hands of the Western European countries and the US, which have always used it to pursue their interests in Turkey at the expense of the Armenian people. And in the end, renouncing those protocols will improve the relations between Armenia and the Diaspora, which have become rather tense after the protocols were signed,” the political scientist says.
Nune AREVSHATYAN
