Under the “Face to Face” talk show of Aravot online, the topic is discussed between the former Supreme Council MP Albert Baghdasaryan and political scientist Vardan Khachatryan.
Aram Abrahamyan – Let’s start with yesterday’s news. Kessab occupied armed fighters are the Armenian elderly, who were left in Kessab and had moved to the territory of Turkey, the Armenian village of Vakef of Musaler. What does that mean?
Albert Baghdasaryan – From the very beginning, the Kessab events, with some campaign, were interpreted as genocide. What is the definition of genocide by the UN, none is included in this definition, except for one point, which is the deportation. However, deportation is not done by clear national affiliation. Syria is in a war between the Assad regime and its mixed opponents. The latter had decided to occupy strategically key spot, Kessab, whether with the help of Turkey, the West or someone else, all of these is secondary to me. But, it is a fact that Kessab is in a war, a part of armed fighters entered from the side of Turkey, and a part from Syria, no Armenian was executed, no Armenian was even wounded, the Armenians had fled away. There were 18 of them left, and they, as we could see from footages, were taken by small buses to Turkey, to an Armenian village.
Vardan Khachatryan – By all possible parameters, it was ethnic cleansing, both the transportation and entering. Who entered? The “Jabhat an-Nusra” organization, whose behavior we should know to get an idea of what might happen. Their goal is to establish an emirate in Kessab, to live by Islamic laws. People living by this law should be Moslems, and to live there the Armenians have to maintain the laws and be deprived of certain rights. Roughly speaking, they do not see any problem with reserving the slavery status of people belonging to Christianity or other religion. This is a process that takes place not only in Syria. Emirates are established there even today, the center of this organization is in Turkey, and our question raised in this regard is very logical: to find out how it happened that 8-10 thousand assaults from a NATO country, Turkey, in organized way, after receiving treatment, and armed entered, and the Turkish armed forces to some extent supported these people to attack the Armenian residences by storm, which really is a tragedy for us. It should be raised as a most critical issue, since a destruction of Christian element occurred in the region, there will be deportations, murders, open executions of people and so on.
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A. A. – Armenian, too?
V. KH. – Armenians were killed in this war, we do not know, they say that today no Armenians were killed in Kessab, only soldiers and policemen were killed, whether there were Armenians among them or not, it’s still not clear to us. But, when we talk about it, this is a key destination where the entire potential of the Armenian people should raise one question, i.e. to conducted an international investigation with publication of interim data of how it happened that the crowd entered from the Turkish territory and moved to Armenian populated area.
A. A. – Who are these armed fighters: gang of robbers, mercenaries, Islamists, some extremists, or just opponents of Assad?
A. B. – Everyone could be. Syria is in a fight, and Armenians are not related to it, the fight was not started by Armenians. The fight was going on in Syria for a year, no one was going close to Aleppo district. Syria is in a war, 26 million people are in a war, 850 families are living in Kessab, about 6,500 inhabitants. According to published figures, this war could not happen just for this one village. What are they doing? Establishing a Turan empire? They are establishing emirates there, and, it turns out that Armenians, as always, are obstacles for them, therefore, the Armenians need to be taken away from the road. We seem to be intruding in-between. Two large forces, each 26 million, are fighting against each other in Syria: the government forces and the opposition. There are people, rebels among the opposition, because initially it commenced with peaceful demonstrations. In addition to people, there are various international terrorist organizations, people are totally supported by the West. Now, they are all fighting together with Assad, and he answers each in its own way. I think the policy of Armenia and Armenians can only be the positive neutrality. In other words, Armenians had clear connections with the authorities, Armenians were living among the same people, and could have friends among the supporters of this popular uprising, and this positive neutrality could lead to the fact that Aleppo was not fired. Armenians did not have positive neutrality; they were always chanting, long love Assad!
Prepared by ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
“Face to Face” talk show is implemented by the Open Society Foundations-Armenia. The views and analyzes found in this program are expressing the opinions of the participants and are not approved by the Open Society Foundations-Armenia or its Board. This program is made available thanks to comprehensive financial support by the Open Society Foundations- Armenia, under the mass media support program, grant No 18624.
