Aravot interviewed former NA Speaker and former Armenian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Ara Sahakyan.
– The last attempt at normalizing relations failed at the hands of Turkey in 2008. What has changed now, why is Turkey normalizing relations? What price will Armenia pay?
Since 1988, with the beginning of the Karabakh movement, Turkey has been closely following the events in Soviet Armenia. In December 1991, when the elimination of the USSR from the political map of the world was already a fact, Turkey recognized and established diplomatic relations with the independent former Soviet republics, with the exception of Armenia. It only de facto recognized us, but not de jure, and it did not establish diplomatic relations. From that day on, the parties treated each other with different vibrancy and moods. Direct and mediated contacts were made at various levels, telephone conversations took place, letters were exchanged, then they were interrupted and resumed after a while. Since the 1990s, tens of thousands of Armenians have been visiting Turkey on pilgrimages to what our ancestors called “lands left to the Turks.”
I myself have visited Kars, Van, and Mush several times, as well as the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople and the editorial offices of “Zhamanak” and “Marmara.” In 1996, in Istanbul, I met with the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament, Mustafa Kalemli, and in 1998, I met the great businessman Ishak Alaton. During his tenure as Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia, he communicated with the Ambassador of Turkey to Kazakhstan Nevzat Uyank. Here are my “declassifications” …
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So, there have always been contacts, it is not necessary to cut off the historical basis. After all, in 2018 there was no desert in Armenia, there were state institutions. Armenia has signed and ratified several hundred international treaties and agreements in which Turkey is also a party. In other words, we do not live in different caves, but we are on a common platform of international legal regulations. Armenia is a member of international and regional organizations where Turkey was already represented: the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization, etc. In 1992, Armenia, together with Turkey and 9 other countries, established the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization and has a permanent representative at its headquarters in Istanbul. All this and many other important steps have been taken in the “last 30 years” cursed by the revolutionaries.
– The Turkish Foreign Minister, from whom we know the news on this issue, stated that the meeting of the envoys will not be delayed. How can you explain this urgency?
Turkey is in a hurry because we are in a tight spot. In 1998, we were in a hurry because Azerbaijan was defeated and in trouble. But we received the blow from within… Everything went irreversibly. Let the historians deal with those cases. Today, we have other problems and, as promised by the revolutionaries, “the situation has changed.”
– I understand your bitter sarcasm. Still, what can we do?
The revolutionaries must understand that a single party and government are not able to solve the Armenian-Turkish conflict with one blow. This is a long job. The national memory will not be erased by the will of one group, the invisible threads connecting the generations will not be cut with an axe blow. The Armenian man turns his back on his landlord, relative, or ruler, but always strengthened or stubbornly returned to his forgotten roots. Remember the popular saying: This dough will still take a lot of water. See that you do not inherit extra bitterness from those who come after us. Take things in stride and try not focus too much on the problem. It is preferable to listen to Lewis Fons’s song “Despacito” before each negotiation. It has 4 billion listeners, no harm. And. And do not be fooled by the lavish receptions and sweet words of the East, and do not believe in the promises of the Nobel Peace Prize. Aliyev took that award from under your nose in the last war.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
