Armenians begin to punch their weight

Turkey Has Gone Back on its Word
Armenia's foreign minister says Ankara needs to prove its good intentions.
OCTOBER 12, 2010
By EDWARD NALBANDIAN

Last year on Oct. 10 in Zurich, after intensive negotiations, Armenia
and Turkey reached agreement and the foreign ministers of the two
countries signed the protocols on the establishment of diplomatic
relations, opening of the border and development of bilateral
relations.

The Armenian-Turkish relations were in a deadlock when President Serzh
Sargsyan initiated the normalization process with Turkey. We in
Armenia were guided by a vision of a future in which generations would
live in peace and safety. This Armenian initiative met a positive
response by the Turkish President and allowed us to make a confident
investment in a durable rapprochement.

Our position was reflected in the well-known approach of normalization
of relations without any preconditions. It was the bottom-line
principle for starting the negotiations with Turkey. With this common
understanding we started, conducted this process and came to the
agreements. From the beginning of the process up until now this
approach has been shared by the whole international community—starting
from the Swiss mediators to the secretary-general of the U.N., the
OSCE, the EU, the U.S., Russia, France and many other countries.

Unfortunately Turkey has backtracked from the agreements. Not only has
it refrained from ratifying the protocols, but Ankara has returned to
the language of preconditions that it had used before the beginning of
the process.

It seems we speak in different languages. On the one hand, the Turkish
leaders pretend that they always respect the principle of pacta sunt
servanda (agreements must be kept), but on the other hand, they
refrain from ratifying and implementing the agreements signed by
themselves in Zurich. What does that mean? They claim they have no
preconditions, that they simply demand that we fulfill this or that
before they can proceed with the ratification. Does this mean they
have no preconditions?

Turkey has attempted to link the Armenian-Turkish normalization
process to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. They say
that they do not want to act as mediators in the Nagorno-Karabakh
peace talks, but just negotiate between Armenians and Azerbaijanis to
find a solution. Any Turkish attempts to interfere in the Karabakh
process or to link the normalization of its relations with Armenia
upon its own perception of progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh talks,
harms both processes. This is a position that all major players
involved in Armenia-Turkey normalization and Nagorno-Karabakh peace
talks, the whole international community have emphasized several
times. The international community speaks one language and the Turkish
side speaks another one.

Turkey pretends that all problems in the region must have a
"comprehensive solution" once and for all. This is a beautiful phrase,
but how realistic is it? It is a mere rhetoric, all words and no
performance.

Hypocritically Turkey also uses the normalization process as a
smokescreen for baseless argument that the adoption of resolutions on
the Armenian Genocide in various countries can damage the
normalization process. Yet, from the beginning of the process we made
clear both in our contacts with the Turkish partners as well as
publicly that Armenia will never put under question the fact of the
Armenian Genocide or the importance of its international recognition.

True reconciliation does not consist of forgetting the past or feeding
younger generations tales of denial. Despite the fact that for 95
years Turkey has been continuously denying the Armenian Genocide, the
Armenian side did not require its recognition by Turkey as a
precondition for the normalization of the relations. Paradoxically it
is Turkey that directly or indirectly has attempted to manipulate that
issue, making it a precondition.

Armenia initiated that process and spared no effort to see it succeed.
When the Turkish side was pushing the whole process into a stalemate,
Armenia was obliged to suspend its own ratification procedure. Yet it
remained in the normalization process, which was met with
understanding and welcomed by world leaders.

The negotiations between Armenia and Turkey were finalized by the
signature of the protocols. There is neither "silent diplomacy, nor "a
second season" of Zurich, nor any new round of negotiations, according
to the information often spread by the Turkish media these days. The
only remaining step in this long lasting process is the ratification
and implementation of the Armenian-Turkish protocols without further
ado. Armenia will be ready to move forward if Turkey is again ready to
go ahead with the normalization process without preconditions.

Today various world capitals recall that the ball is in the Turkish
court, that Armenia has done its part and that Turkey should take the
steps that it promised to take.

One needs to prove one's good intentions by deeds.

Mr. Nalbandian is Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenianews.am, Armenia
Oct 9 2010


SASSOUNIAN: TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY SHOULD REMOVE
LIES FROM ITS WEBSITE AND ISSUE APOLOGY
By: Harut Sassounian
Mon, Oct 11 2010

Turkish officials have been misrepresenting the facts of the Armenian
Genocide for years. Even though this is saddening and even sickening,
it is not surprising. Wrongdoers usually cover up their guilt and
proclaim their innocence.

What is truly surprising is that the descendants of victims of the
Armenian Genocide, having been accustomed to such Turkish distortions,
no longer see the need to put up a vigorous fight against denialist
~Shistorians,~T politicians, diplomats, and reporters.

Why is it that descendants of the Jewish Holocaust go to great lengths
to counter denialist historians, neo-Nazis, and other revisionists,
while Armenians seem to be oblivious to those who distort their own
tragedy? Is it because they are simply tired of hearing the same old
Turkish lies year after year or do they feel powerless to put an end
to these distortions?

Earlier this year, the House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted
a resolution on the Armenian Genocide by a slim 23-22 majority.
Regardless of what excuses the 22 members came up with for voting
against this resolution, the fact is that when the time came to stand
up and acknowledge the truth, they did not have the moral fortitude
to be counted among the righteous! Instead they chose to side with
the liars, deniers, and mass murderers!

And what has been the Armenian reaction to the despicable behavior of
these 22 members of Congress? No outrage was expressed by Armenians!
Not a single Armenian official condemned these scoundrels in Congress.
Where is the organized effort by Armenian-Americans to target for
defeat the Congressmen who voted against the Armenian Genocide
resolution and are running for reelection on November 2nd?

Imagine what would have happened if a single member of Congress
had voted against a resolution on the Holocaust! Would Israel~Rs
leaders and Jewish-Americans have remained silent? They would have
rightly done everything in their power to ensure that such a member
of Congress is not reelected!

The question is not whether the Armenian-American community is as
influential or powerful as the Jewish-American community. Regardless
of its actual political prowess, the Armenian community must mount
a vigorous campaign to defeat its political opponents. Once word
spreads in Congress that anyone who votes against the Armenian
Genocide would be targeted for defeat, those immoral and spineless
members of Congress would quickly conclude that denying the Genocide
for a fistful of Turkish Liras is not in their own best interest!

Here is another blatant example of genocide denial that has gone
unnoticed and unchallenged by Armenians and the international
community. The Turkish Foreign Ministry~Rs website includes countless
distorted statements on the Armenian Genocide. The website provides
deceptive responses to innocently-worded questions, such as: ~SWhat
happened in 1915? What is the total number of the Armenian deportees?
Did all the Armenian deportees die? Is it a crime to describe the
events of 1915 as ~Qgenocide~R in Turkey and are the ones whom (sic)
argue this exposed to legal investigation?~T

On its website, the Turkish Foreign Ministry goes to absurd lengths
in a vain attempt to make Turkey look good by claiming that ~STurkey
is the only country where the events of 1915 can be discussed in a
free manner!~T

The website also makes the false claim that ~Sthere is no one in Turkey
now who has been tried or prosecuted due to the reason that he/she
described the events of 1915 as ~Qgenocide.~R~T The Turkish Foreign
Ministry conveniently forgets that Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was
tried and found guilty for using the word ~Sgenocide~T in an interview.
He met a worse fate than serving a jail term. He was shot and killed!
Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk was also charged under the infamous
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (~SInsulting Turkishness~T)
for stating that one million Armenians were killed! After intense
international pressure, however, the charges against Pamuk were
dropped, and subsequently reinstated! Many other Turkish journalists
and writers have been taken to court for writing about the Armenian
Genocide.

There should be a concerted effort by Armenian officials, Diaspora
Armenians, and the international community, demanding that the Turkish
government immediately remove those insulting lies from the Foreign
Ministry~Rs website and issue an apology to Armenians.

Until then, no Armenian official should have any contact or meetings
with Turkish leaders. Just imagine if the German Foreign Ministry~Rs
website stated that the Holocaust never happened! Would Israel~Rs
leaders have carried on business as usual with Germany?


Times.am, Armenia
Oct 9 2010
Baku continues threatening with war resumption in zone of
Karabakh conflict
The Council of NGOs of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic disseminated a
statement with respect to the OSCE Field Assessment Mission on the
liberated territories of the NKR.

`We perceive the OSCE Field Assessment Mission as an action, which is
escalating tension in the region of the conflict and which is not
expected to contribute to the process of the peaceful settlement of
the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

While official Baku is voicing threats against the NKR and its people
and the Azerbaijani leadership is continuously threatening with a
resumption of war, while during the last few months the Line of
Contact is being under heavy fire on a daily basis and people are
dying, while the Azerbaijani armed forces keep on attempting
reconnaissance and sabotage actions in the territory of the NKR, while
Baku only confirms its aggressive intentions with its flat refusal to
withdraw snipers from the Line of Contact, the OSCE Minsk Group
mediators instead of dealing with all these issues are organizing a
mission, which looks like an attempt to appease the aggressive party.

We, the representatives of the Artsakh public, do not understand why
the war rhetoric of the Azerbaijani leaders and the aggressive
behavior of the Azerbaijani armed forces, threatening to escalate into
a large-scale war, remain out of the attention and the adequate
targeted assessment of the OSCE Minsk Group. The OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chair countries, which assumed responsibility for the peaceful
settlement of the conflict, have to make every effort to prevent
violence and any kind of activity, provoking an escalation of tension.

Moreover, it is absolutely clear that Baku will use the results of the
OSCE Field Assessment Mission to intensify the information war, just
as the political leadership of Azerbaijan is continuing its cynical
speculations over the results of the work of previous OSCE Missions.

The one-sided character of the upcoming OSCE Field Assessment Mission,
in our opinion, also cannot give a positive impulse to the process of
the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict settlement.

For the mission to be able to give a complete picture, it should also
simultaneously take place in the territories of the NKR, occupied by
Azerbaijan.

The Field Assessment Mission should also draw the attention of the
public to the facts of vandalism towards the Armenian historical and
cultural monuments in these territories, aimed at the destruction of
any historical and cultural evidence of continued Armenian presence in
those lands, including through populating these territories with
Azerbaijanis.

We protest against the mediators' disregard of the rights of the
Armenian refugees and displaced persons.
Besides, Armenians that have once been deprived of their Homeland by
being forcibly expelled from Azerbaijan and found shelter on the
liberated territories again will be subjected to psychological
pressure and stress and for some reason to explain their right to life
on this land.

We strongly believe that any decision should be based on parity, as
well as proceed from the principles of equal rights and justice,
accommodating the opinions of all societies involved in the conflict,
and most importantly, it should serve to prevent tension and violence
and establish lasting peace,' reads the statement.


Keeping Mum Not a Choice
Keghart.com Team Editorial,
11 October 2010

Some Armenians believe we should not discuss certain touchy subjects,
our shortcomings and problems in the media. We should talk about our
challenges in private, within our living room walls, in community
centres, they argue. “Washing our dirty linen” in public assists
Ankara to gauge our mood, concerns … and plan strategies to counteract
our efforts. In an even more potent figurative language, they maintain
that by airing our issues publicly we act like besieged people who
wail their plight over the walls of the harried city, tipping the
enemy of our vulnerabilities.


“Balderdash,” we say.

How can we remain silent about the recent killings and “suicides” in
the Armenian Army?

How can we not comment on the recent and frequent Artsakh/Azerbaijan
firefights when the Armenian side, more often than not, is suffering
higher casualties than the enemy?

What kind of confidence do the above tragic cases inspire among
Armenians when almost on a weekly basis Baku threatens war against us?

How can we ignore the Humvee-escorted mafia oligarchs who prance in
downtown Yerevan, intimidating everyone and corrupting everything they
touch?

How can we not discuss the plight of three pillars of the Armenian
Church—the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Istanbul, the Mkhitarists in
Venice and Vienna?

And what about the crevasse in two of our three Diaspora political
parties? Should we not address the divisions which hurt not only the
parties involved but the Armenian nation in general? Finally, what
about the major political party—Tashnagtsoutune—which takes its
marbles and goes home when it doesn’t like an aspect of inter-Armenian
community cooperation? While we admire Tashnagtsoutune for its
remarkable efforts against ‘Jermak Chart’ (White Massacre), shouldn’t
someone say out loud that the political party’s ‘lone wolf’ act is
arcane and damaging to us all? We wonder how many members of
Tashnagtsoutune really know the mission statement of the party, its
strategy, its thinking, where it's headed. And what's the big secret
about the doings of the "gomides" and "bureaus"? Is it necessary to
repeat the lack of cooperation among our political leaders that hurts
our fragile Diaspora?

Yes, we wouldn’t be surprised if Turkish intelligence agents are
monitoring our media. In the Age of Internet, surveillance has become
much easier to conduct. But putting the lid on our festering problems
will not make the problems go away. We all know this, but sometimes
choose to forget that shedding light is the best serum.

Rather than advocating ‘circumspection’ and ‘keep it in the family’,
these preachers of silence should come forth with constructive ideas,
and expose their opinions to the test of intelligent and knowledgeable
debate.

Pick a copy of the famous “Bartlett’s Book of Quotations” and you will
find that it is replete with sage advice on the benefits of the free
exchange of ideas. Ditto the Bible.

Letting Ankara know of our challenges -- in Armenia and in the
Diaspora -- is not something we are eager to do, but the alternative
suggested by some wary Armenians is worse for our nation. Silence
obstructs communication, leading to ignorance or to the monopoly of
information by committees and “insiders.’’ Silence can also lead to
complacency and lack of accountability. As Montreal intellectual and
activist Viken Attarian pointed out at a recent gathering in Toronto,
centralized structures, such as the Soviet Union, are doomed. The
impossibility of effective communication in large or complex
structures is one of the reasons monoliths will go the way of
Ozymandias.

Every day we receive letters at Keghart.com. Most of them are
well-informed and all are well-meaning. Some are controversial, others
express views we do not adhere to. But it is by publishing them all
that we and readers can determine the brightest and the most
constructive ideas.

The recent history of Armenians has made us a global nation.
Thanks to electronic communication we are connected by a
magical, invisible network. Whether we live in Melbourne,
Moscow or Marseilles, we are just clicks away from fellow
Armenians. The Internet reveals our concerns to Ankara, but
it also bonds us, and helps us work together. Let’s take
advantage of this ‘God-sent’ facility.

Our enemies in Ankara maliciously claim that our leaders employ the
“myth of the Armenian Genocide” as a glue to hold us together and
preserve our identity. Let’s turn that false claim on its head. Let’s
use the Internet as a key to advance our cause, even if Ankara spooks
are reading our communications.