“We have to think in terms of reality, what we have.
We have a region, countries that are our neighbors, and we must look at everything from the GDP of those countries, their strength, and being a member of various international organizations. If we look at the level of personal posts on social networks, we can not smoothly move Armenia to another platform,” said Khachatur Sukiasyan, a member of the Civil Contract faction, in a conversation with reporters on January 17.
In response to the question of if he sees any risks, he said, “Go to Sevan from here, there is still a risk, because another car from the opposite road may hit you.” The journalists presented the risks for the country: the genocide does not happen only with slaughter, in the 21st century there are types of white genocide: seizing the economy, acquiring property, etc. What can you say about these risks?
Khachatur Sukiasyan
Sukiasyan answered, “Armenians who were born where the Turkish state is have lived there for tens of hundreds of generations. As far as I know, many high-ranking Turkish officials have said that Armenians feel very good economically here. I can not say about the crypto-Armenians. I am talking about the Armenians who live in Istanbul and are involved in different activities. In my opinion, as Khachatur Sukiasyan, as far as I study, I am consistent in the decline of their national currency, beyond our borders, Kars and other areas, up to 200 km. In my opinion, the local population will use many services from Armenia. That is why I myself have sent such a message to our medical enterprises that they are already acquiring modern equipment that works with artificial intelligence.
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Our doctors have a pretty good education and it is possible that the locals, no matter if they are Turks, use Gyumri. We will use the services developed in Turkey.” In response to the question of whether there are victims of genocide among his ancestors, Sukiasyan answered, “My ancestors came in the 1880s. They came after those clashes.” The reporters clarified if he meant the Hamidian massacres. He answered, “I do not know what massacre it was. My grandfather told us about it. You say Hamidian, and I don’t know what my grandfather used to say.” In response to the journalists’ question of if he would live peacefully with the man who killed Armenian children and his ancestors, Sukiasyan urged the journalists to stop.
“Stop it, this way we will not communicate with each other. You were killed, you were killed, the British were killed, and the rest were killed by the Germans and the French. There was a genocide of Jews, today they live in peace with the Germans.”
The journalists clarified that Germany recognized the genocide, and Sukiasyan responded, “Yes, they recognized it, now we are in that direction as well. I want our generations to have a strong country, a prosperous life. There are formulas for that, formulas in reality. We have to look at the region, be aware, we also benefit, so do our neighbors.
We must respect our neighbors, and they must respect us,” Sukiasyan said. “I think it is possible to have neighborly relations with neighboring Azerbaijan. Many of the world’s neighboring countries have large volumes of each other’s GDP, such as France-Germany, France-England, Germany-Netherlands. If we manage to have a high percentage of GDP with our neighbors, even higher than 5, they are very good restraining tools to improve relations, because if they worsen, their state suffers, as well as their citizens.”
In response to the question of if he wants to have good relations with neighboring Azerbaijan, the same Azerbaijan that killed our 3 18-year-old boys a few days ago, Khachatur Sukiasyan answered, “I bow to the graves of our three 18-year-old soldiers. I am referring to that Azerbaijan, yes, the one that is our enemy. We will not pass that enmity on to our children and generations. We have to settle.” He urged us to be civilized, saying that the same questions exist in Azerbaijan. “We have to manage it with restraint. There will be times, but we have what we have. You know where we are on the map, what our neighbors are, and we need to normalize relations with our neighbors so that we do not turn our generations into enemies.”
In response to the question of how he imagines neighborly relations with Azerbaijan and how we should solve the Artsakh issue, he answered, “I imagine it within the framework of the right to self-determination.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
