Turkologist about the Armenian-Turkish relations
Senior researcher of the Institute of Oriental studies of the NAS of Armenia, also turkologist Vahram Ter-Matevosyan, in the interview with “Aravot”, expressed the following opinion that after the April 23 message, last year, new manifestations of form and content are available in the Turkey’s official policy. “They are continuous in nature, and each new statement or initiative is built on the former one. Thus, at present, a quite large package is created, which includes the country’s top leadership’s vision about normalization of relations with Armenia and the Armenian people. When getting acquainted with the content of various documents included in this package, one gets the impression, and I am sure, that it is the true objective pursued by Turkey, Ankara is moving “by the way of self-cleansing and self-lashing”, while Armenia is not duly signifying these “courageous moves” by Turkey” says Mr. Ter-Matevosyan. He believes that Turkey creates an impression that the hand stretched out to Armenia is left in the air, and the reason are the nationalistic sentiments of the leadership in Armenia. “If we give a formulation to Turkey’s policy over the last 10 months, then it just looks like this,” says the turkologist.
To the question of whom the Turkish propaganda machine is aimed at, he answers, “I am sure that firstly not at Armenians, because it is very difficult to mislead Armenians with such nonsenses. Armenians are not the first time and I’m sure not the last time to hear it. The international community is an extremely elastic notion, indeed, there will be some, for whom the Turkish approach would be more perceivable, and for the majority of them, the Armenian approach would be more perceivable. The same logic works for the Turkish society. The attempts of the Turkish government to set up a “new start” at this point is failed, both the time and the methods are wrongly chosen,” says Mr. Ter-Matevosyan.
Turning to Pan Armenian Declaration, our interlocutor considered this document essential. “The Declaration of January 29 is an attempt to establish a connection between the past and the present, on the one hand, and the future, on the other hand. Its name is selected worthily, a “Declaration”. This declaration is an important milestone. It is also the equivalent indicator of collective will, maturity and political thought of Armenians on Genocide issue. It is generally accepted positively by the Armenians, although there were diversity of interpretations, which is positive. It is quite extensive and comprehensive document, and it is not possible to analyze it completely with one question,” says Mr. Ter-Matevosyan, adding, – Anyway, the first problem that arose with all the people concerned, probably refers to the fact of what actions should be carried out in the direction of making the Armenian demands more accessible and mature. Indeed, the paper envelop of legal requirements was also mentioned, also the three-level demand was also presented. I hope that the new document will be clearly and accessibly present the road map, by which the Armenians’ rights and legitimate interests restoration process will proceed. The first steps in the direction of declaring the years of 2015 as a year of a change in our mindset and self-assessment are already made.”
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The turkologist also opines that after January 29, Armenia’s diplomacy tasks are also changing. “It was not a coincidence that the ambassadors of the Republic of Armenia to abroad were also present at the Genocide Memorial place that day. A task was put before them that day. Now, it is necessary to elaborate an action plan for the implementation of separate episodes of the Declaration, set a task for the diplomatic representations, define a clear criteria for the assessment of the results and move ahead,” says Vahram Ter-Matevosyan.
HRIPSIME HOVHANNISYAN
