Aravot interviewed Deputy Speaker of the Parliament from 1992-1998, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ara Sahakyan.
– The political trading that has been going on for a long time seems to have ended and NATO member Turkey, which was against the membership of Sweden and Finland in that military structure, agreed. The main concern put forward by Turkey has been met and the representatives of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, who are accused of terrorism in Turkey, will be extradited to Turkey. It is noteworthy that the NATO Secretary General not only welcomed the extradition, calling it a “courageous deed,” but also called the PKK a terrorist organization. What new effects will this reality have in the region? What surprises await Armenia, which is moving towards the Turkish world by ceding territories? Particularly, the meetings between Armenia’s inexperienced and Turkey’s experienced special envoys are quite intense.
– Turkey’s leadership, political elite, and society are aware of what they want and are moving towards the realization of the stated goals. Let me say at once: in our case, there is no basis for making such a claim. If we try to put it in a general way, Turkey continues to strengthen itself as a regional power with the ambitions of a global superpower. It implements the “No problem with neighbors” program with pre-aggressive foreign political tough rhetoric, economic and military expansion. Now Armenia is the weakest and most vulnerable among its neighbors.
Ara Sahakyan
The 30-year economic blockade, the pressures exerted on us in international and regional organizations, the distortion of the content of the Karabakh conflict, the disruption of the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group, the unconditional political and military support of Azerbaijan, the unleashing of the war against the Armenians of Artsakh prove that Turkey’s pressures have been and will be the most painful for us. The moral burden of Turkey’s historical complicity and its refusal to accept it sits like a heavy stone on Armenian-Turkish relations. That is why the vast majority of our society is full of deep mistrust towards the leadership of modern Turkey. I doubt that the Rubinyan-Kilic meetings will be able to destroy the wall of hostility built by Turkey. In all cases, the move is theirs. We have taken the most difficult step by sitting at the negotiating table just one year after the war unleashed against us.
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– It is also obvious that as soon as the east of Ukraine gets a little stronger, the Russian Federation will focus on our region, unless, of course, before that, the West, pursuing opposite interests, does not come forward. What region will we have in the short term?
– Everything was decided by the people who will act on behalf of the republics of Armenia and Artsakh. The attitude of the immediate neighbors, Russia, the international community towards our problems, and their sincere willingness to provide political and military support to us will have a significant impact. Let’s be ready for everything, from catastrophic human and territorial losses to dignified resistance, regardless of who will be leading us.
– In his last press conference, Nikol Pashinyan clearly stated that the era of peace he promised will not bring peace. After that confession, what should he do? What should the opposition do?
– The political majority should first give our society an era of peace and stop clinging to power. I know that it is almost impossible to willingly give up the deception of the “rescue mission.” But it should be done and pave the way for extensive consolidation of society. We are in a situation where we do not have the right to trust only one political group in this crucial period for the state, and that is destructive and failure.
– What other messages did you single out from Nikol Pashinyan’s statements? What do they document?
– The message was and remains the same – the unexamined conviction of his purity, infallibility, his saving mission. It remains to cry bitterly about where he was until now…
– Why does he continue to “throw” the issue of prisoners into the pockets of the Russians? Why after his last statement in Gyumri, where the Russian military base is located, after a long silence, the parents of the POWs came out to the streets?
– The Russians have their share of responsibility and guilt, without a doubt. But he blames the Russians, because he signed the document of November 9 in a very emotional state and in a deep basement, the consequences of which he failed to calculate in a day or two. The truth is that the government would not have addressed the fates of our compatriots who were captured, held illegally, kidnapped, and disappeared, if it were not for the persistent and desperate struggle of their relatives. The “Peace Era” coin placed them in the “plus-minus 50” scheme. It is the result of revolutionary thinking (more precisely, lack of thinking and conscience) of “great deeds require great sacrifices.” But, it is known, the best and the innocent, the children of working and poor families are killed. This is our bitter reality.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
