Since 2009, Ahmet Davutoğlu was the first Turkish official that had arrived in Armenia, but he had to enter the hotel from the back door due to the picket organized outdoors. Did we have expectations from this visit? Or, maybe, they should talk about the borders, which was not done, anyway, Turkish media made such publications. And, in this case, who appeared in the advantageous condition: Armenia or Turkey, the President of “Modus Vivendi” Center, political scientist, Ara Papyan, in the conversation with Aravot.am, answering our questions, said, “I do not think that we had expectation, because it was not a visit within the scope of Armenia-Turkey. The Turkish press wrote what they wanted, but, essentially, they also had mentioned about the prerequisites, with which we should establish relationship, the matter is about yielding at least 2 districts of Karabakh. This was an experimental ball that was thrown to see what the reaction would be. And, if we view it from the perspective of advantageous, the protocols are working in favor of Azerbaijan, and they are in advantageous position, because it turns out that there is a process between Armenia and Turkey, a dialogue, intention to find something in common, which is speculated. But, in reality, there is nothing, but it is speculated by the Turks, and pretty successfully.” To the next question whether the Foreign Affairs Minister’s statement on Armenian-Turkish relations was not weak, because it was just said that the relations should be normalized without preconditions, and the attempts of the Turkish side to associate this process with other issues, or to put forward preconditions, are in vein and useless. Maybe we should be tougher, Mr. Papyan answered, “Absolutely yes, by a number of reasons. First, prior to it, the Turkish side had stated about the preconditions, and prescribe them in the Geneva Protocols, the matter, here, is about the recognition of borders, and the establishment of the sub-committee, and the third was the Karabakh issue. Here, a situation is created, in which we are in the role of an expectant and a requester, but, eventually, Turkey is preserving the territory of the Republic of Armenia under occupation, and not vice versa, therefore, we need to remind this, too. And the matter is about the Foreign Affairs Minister of an occupant country, and I would like to emphasize that the matter is about the territory of the Republic of Armenia, and not about the historical Armenia, and whose Minister of Foreign Affairs is Edward Nalbandian, in other words, 70% of it has been occupied, and they say – without preconditions. It has been already 20 years, we move without preconditions, and we haven’t made any success, and they are dictating the preconditions. But, it is time for us to put preconditions. And, the concern that if we dictate preconditions, our relations would be deteriorated, it is not so, because, one way or another, the relations were poor. When they had been good to be worse today, and maybe when we had put forward precondition, tough positions, today, we could have mitigated our positions, by obtaining something for it, and not like this, when Karabakh is becoming a subject of bargaining.” In response to the other question that mission the Black Sea Economic Cooperation organization is the economic cooperation, and we had always pushed the economic relations to the forefront, however, there is a question here of what economic cooperation are we talking about with Turkey, when one of the member states of the organization imposes a blockade over the other member state of the organization, Ara Papyan notes, “This is what we should have emphasized repeatedly that Turkey being a initiating country of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, today, does not implement the principles stipulated in the spirit and document. Eventually, Azerbaijan can somehow be understood that it wants to present that Armenia is an occupant, though, it is the opposite, but Turkey is still not the aggrieved party, is it? Unfortunately, this issue has ever been raised, and, in fact, the Black Sea Economic Cooperation is missing in the organization. It’s another issue that there is a bilateral Armenian-Turkish economic trade, and to the point, pretty big, about 200 million, in which we more import to Turkey than export.” At the end, Ara Papyan added that any organization, to which we member, we should pursue the objective of use the organization to the benefit of Armenia, whereas, very often, membership to such organizations, in our case, carry a formal character.
Eva HAKOBYAN
