Vahram Ter-Matevosyan about recall of the Armenian-Turkish protocols
A few days ago, Serzh Sargsyan recalled the Armenian-Turkish protocols from the National Assembly, and this decision as such became the subject of discussion for everyone. Turkey considered it “wrong and an unsuccessful move,” while the main opinion among the Armenian circles was that it should be have been done earlier. Turkologist Vahram Ter-Matevosyan in the conversation with “Aravot” said that no sense to talk whether the president’s decision was late or not, but the point that it was correct, it is just indisputable. “It is clear to everyone that Armenia in this process was left alone, except perhaps for the United States,” says Mr. Ter-Matevosyan and notes that on October 5, at the time of the signing of the protocols in Zurich, the state and the institutions backing up Edward Nalbandian and Ahmet Davutoglu in the meantime failed to exercise their commitments; some of them over the time got “sick and tired”, while for the others, more important political issues emerged. “Thus, the very slow process of normalization of the Armenian – Turkish relations retreated in their list of priorities and became not important. As a result, Armenia, unfortunately, was left alone, and it was time to put an end to the uncertainty,” says Mr. Ter-Matevosyan. He thinks that Armenian, however, learned lessons from this process. “It was able to sit alone facing the Turks and to negotiate making clarifications on some issues, and why not, also reporting more uncertainty on some issues, but apart from this episode, I think that this attempt of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations and establishment of a new platform did not work out,” says the Turkologist. I think that Turkey obtained some benefit from the situation. “For Turkey, this process had created a very good mechanism to “sell” the following thesis to the international community: “Do not disturb the Armenian-Turkish process, as it seems that though with difficulty, but it is moving forward.” Let’s not forget that on many occasions, both Davutoglu and Erdogan repeated that processes and meetings take place, and these assertions were followed by denials from the Armenian side, in addition, the EU, PACE and Council of Europe, everyone seem to be more prone to the formulation that good or bad, it seems that the process is taking place, and it’s better to not disturb by being silent or expressing a passive stance,” says Mr. Ter-Matevosyan.
He also tends to believe that ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols was a chance that the Turkish people lost. “When the next one will be, how it will be and in what format, it is a question. But the point that Turkey’s political leadership failed to demonstrate a political will and give a solution to this problem, it is a fact, and as Abdullah Gül said in September 6, 2008, for not leaving this problem for the future generations. The Turkish side was unable to keep its promise, it failed to demonstrate such a political will so that to be able to move this promise at least one step forward and be able to implement it,” says Mr. Ter-Matevosyan.
Referring to Erdoğan’s statement made recently at the symposium in Columbia saying that let the historians deal with studying the Genocide, our interlocutor says, “This is one of the vain and empty theses of Turkish propaganda machine that no longer withstands any criticism. Numerous experts, both prestigious and non-prestigious, everyone has repeatedly expressed their opinions about it. The talks about the Genocide are excluded because there is nothing to prove and if the Turks do not know the history of their country, let them be kind enough to go and explore as much as they need. Setting up a Turkish-Armenian committee of historians was and continues to be a crazy idea. Any manipulation and stalling around it is unacceptable, and next time, Armenia should never take this bait, no matter in what package it will be offered to the public or the Diaspora. And then, even the Turkish experts are not entitled to do researches in the archives, which contain real and fundamental information. How can you imagine the Armenian historians’ unobstructed work in highly important, let’s say, archives of the General Staff?” says Vahram Ter-Matevosyan.
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To the observation of “Aravot” whether it would not be more correct to emphasis also the legal demand in the list of events dedicated to the centennial of the Genocide, as some people think that “I remember and demand” motto does not fully reflect our desires, Mr. Ter-Matevosyan replied, “I think there could not be a motto or a formulation that would satisfy everyone. This motto was selected that is easy to remember, has an advice and a content. This was followed by the Declaration on January 29, which seems was intended to complete the formulation. We can talk endlessly and discuss the positive and negative aspects. But we must remember that it is a never-ending process, the Declaration is not the final word. At this point, we have what we have. Of course, it would be desirable to elaborate the complete symbolism of the Genocide events as a result of more extensive professional discussions, the core message and the advice. It would be desirable that the experts of the sphere be involved in it, unfortunately, I have not heard anything like that, maybe my senior colleagues are involved, but the contacts show that their involvement is not also too extensive,” says Mr. Ter-Matevosyan, adding that the important thing is that currently we have our political position about the Armenian genocide. “We should make sure that this “Remember and demand” motto becomes a part of subconscious and conscious for every Armenian, and the most important task should be the one of what each of us has done in the series of these events for 2015 rather than waiting for the report of what the government has done. This is everybody’s pain, everybody’s history and memory.”
HRIPSIME HOVHANNISYAN
