Since, according to NKR former Foreign Minister Arman Melikyan, Serzh Sargsyan sent the Armenian-Turkish protocols to hell not on his but on behalf of many citizens of Armenia.
– How will you estimate President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan’s speech in the UN? Is there a certain view that Serzh Sargsyan’s words addressed to the outer world during his tenure was quite tough, at the same time, balanced and with correct accents? Do you agree?
– A strange qualification: a word can be tough, soft or balanced. It cannot be both tough and balanced. It’s another question of to how justified this toughness is and adequate to the current situation. In my opinion, it is equivalent as it certifies the failure of sweeping efforts addressed at least to the improvement of Armenian-Turkish relations. By and large, this was a confession of short-sightedness of the process started in 2008 and notorious and demagogic Armenian-Turkish protocols made from the UN podium. As usual, Mr. Sargsyan, in the context of Azerbaijan and Karabakh conflict, talked about everything except for the Azeri-Armenian refugees problems, following the harmful tradition established by his predecessors. Without raising this issue, talking about other key elements of the conflict is useless and fruitless waste of time. In the context of conflict settlement, this is the only issue, the substantial and comprehensive discussion of which can eventually lead to real solutions.
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– Why isn’t Serzh Sargsyan able or seeks to keep the balance in the domestic political life, too?
– This is a matter of work style, which, perhaps, is also correlated with certain world outlook peculiarities. I wish that he and all of his successors adopt the conduct of talking to subordinates and ordinary citizens with “You” as an important step to ensure the balance. Psychologically, it is a problem when the person occupying a leading position, while contacting with his subordinates or ordinary citizens, addresses them with “you,” clearly realizing that they cannot address him with “you”. He must realize that all sectors of the government system follow the pattern used by him. I assure you that this, may be not seemed significant at first glance, detail can form a totally new environment – the government is obligated to stay on its proper height.
– Speaking from the UN podium about the Armenian-Turkish protocols, Serzh Sargsyan directly sent them “to hell”, saying, “Those Protocols have been shelved for years now awaiting ratification in the Turkish Parliament. Ankara declares publicly that it will ratify those Protocols only if Armenians cede Nagorno-Karabakh, the free Artsakh, to Azerbaijan. In Armenia and Artsakh, ordinary people often just retort to such preconditions: “To hell with your ratification.” This vernacular phrase concentrates the age-old struggle of the entire nation, and it unequivocally explains to those who attempt to bargain the others’ homeland that the motherland is sacrosanct, and they had better stay away from us with their bargain. It is in these circumstances that currently the official Yerevan is seriously considering the issue of recalling the Armenian-Turkish Protocols from the parliament.” While once, he was the number one advocate of protocols. Was the speech also a preparation ground for recalling the protocols from the Parliament of Armenia?
– He sent them to hell not on his but on behalf of many citizens of Armenia, so, personally for him, the bridges are not burned. The protocols, initially, were stillborn, and the sides initialed them based on purely tactical reasons. The Armenian-Turkish hostility is a convenient political tool in the hands of strangers, in the context of providing geopolitical interests in our region. If we also add that groupings that take immediate benefits from propaganda of this hostility are formed in Turkish and Armenian environments over the decades, it will become clear that the true solution settlement of relationships, today, has a more effective opponent than a supporter.
– Ahead to the centennial of the Genocide, on the background of the official invitation to the Turkish President to visit Armenia, what role and significance will the recalling of the protocols have, and what future developments will be? Will Turkey go to more drastic actions against Armenia, especially that once, Erdoğan himself hinted on 70 thousand Armenians living and working illegally in Turkey?
– The Armenian-Turkish relations, in the near future, will most likely gain special importance, especially in the context of growing systemic crisis of Russia-West relations. It is not excluded that Mr. Sargsyan’s such drastic behavior is also due to this fact, obviously he has addressed his words to the newly elected president of Turkey and the newly appointed prime minister of Turkey, who apparently will govern their country in the next few years. I think that it is possible to calculate whom it is necessary to aggravate the Armenian-Turkish relations.
– Can Serzh Sargsyan’s arguments with regard to NKR issue in the UN Security Council and failure to implement the Resolutions of the UN Security Council by Azerbaijan receive a practical respond, or they were just necessary documentations?
– The four UN Resolutions were adopted in already begun war conditions and predominantly refer to the matter of immediate cease of military actions. The Republic of Armenia is not actually introduced in them as a warring party. After father Aliyev’s becoming the President of Azerbaijan, Armenia under Russia’s pressure had to recognize itself as a party in conflict, and with this status, sign the ceasefire agreement. If we want withdraw from this vicious circle, then we need to come up with new arguments and substantiations.
– Yesterday, the draft document for Armenia’s accession to EaEU was published. What risks does it contain, in your opinion?
– We are going to be integrated into a common economic space, against which economic sanctions are already applied, which cannot but influence on our economy. Whether we will benefits, or lose, time will tell. First, the agreement should be signed, and then gradually the norms prescribed by it will begin to apply. As far as I understand, certain temporary benefits and advantages are defined for Armenia. But let’s not go ahead to the events, as the geopolitical changes in the neighboring regions are taking place so fast that in a few months we can appear in an entirely new geopolitical situation.
– Will the agreement for Armenia’s accession to the EaEU be signed on October 10, as it is planned, or there are still hopes that one of the parties will prevent it?
– This is a matter of political tactics. The important matter is that the current authorities of Armenia have announced about their strategic decision to affiliate to the Union, and as to which moment this declaration will be endorsed by signing underneath the document, I do not consider it so essential.
Interviewed by Nelly GRIGORYAN
