“There are all prerequisites for establishing protectorate over historical Armenian lands in the territory of Turkey”: Armenian press digest

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The CIS is 15 years old

Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Tigran Torossyan and Speaker of the Federation Council of Russia Sergey Mironov met in St. Petersburg on Nov 16, in the framework of the 27^th plenary session of the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly. The press service of the Armenian Parliament has informed REGNUM that Torossyan and Mironov discussed the questions concerning the work of the CIS IP, the meeting of the Caucasian Four and the forthcoming visit of Torossyan to Moscow. The speakers of the parliaments of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Russia (the Caucasian Four) met in St. Petersburg the same day.

The CIS is an active and successful organization, the speaker of the Armenian Parliament Tigran Torossyan said during the 27^th plenary session of the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly. “After the collapse of the USSR, the post-Soviet republics faced a very difficult situation and were forced to create new state and inter-state systems, to establish new economic ties, to develop democracy, to solve serious problem,” Torossyan said. And the CIS proved to be very useful as it helped them to effectively legislate and to solve the post-Soviet problems. “So, we can say that the CIS is an active and successful organization,” Torossyan said.

He said that the CIS IP has become so strong that it can already be a good arena for the CIS countries to discuss their problems. “For this purpose, we should develop new mechanisms and new opportunities,” Torossyan said. He pointed out the role of the CIS IP in the life of the CIS, in drafting national legislation, overcoming confrontations, establishing peace in the region. Torossyan said that the CIS IP has good prospects for deepening its role and wished it success in its further activities. (ARKA).

Elections in the US and the “Armenian Cause”

“During the last elections the Hay Dat (Armenian Cause) Committee of America supported 198 candidates: 18 for the Senate, the rest for the Congress. Almost 93% of them have been elected. The basic argument for Hay Dat was a candidate’s position on number of crucial issues: if he supports the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the protection of Nagorno-Karabakh’s right to self-determination, the provision of US financial assistance to Armenia and NK, etc.,” says Kiro Manoyan, “Armenian Cause” officer of the ARFD Bureau (in the program of the ARF Dashnaktsutiun the “Armenian Cause” is a complex of measures for attaining the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and compensation for the relevant damage and for returning the territories historically populated by Armenians — REGNUM)

Manoyan says that Hay Dat hopes that the Democrats they have supported will justify their expectations (concerning the recognition of the Armenian Genocide). True, formerly too the Democrats were in the Senate and the Congress, but now the situation is quite different: “This time some Democrats not only spoke and promised but also acted. In two years the Democrats and the Republicans will run in presidential elections and neither of them would like the well-organized Armenian community of America to act against them.”

Meanwhile, Hayots Ashkharh daily reports the co-chairs of the Armenian Caucus, congressmen Frank Pallone and Joe Knollenberg to say that, together with their colleagues Adam Schiff and George Radanovich, they will draft and submit to the new Congress a resolution for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. They hope that the resolution will be adopted to once and for all confirm the historical truth about the crime committed by Ottoman Turkey against Armenians in 1915-1923. The congressmen point out that the recognition of this horrible fact will be the first step towards preventing such crimes in the future and will give sense to the phrase “never again.” Pallone and Knollenberg are glad that 90% of the Armenian Caucus members have been reelected.

Armenian Ex FM Alexander Arzoumanyan has commented on the statement of Manoyan that after the parliamentary elections in the US Hay Dat asked the US Senate to appoint somebody else but Richard Hoagland as US Ambassador to Armenia and that ARF Dashnaktsutiun is against the candidacy of Hoagland because he does not pronounce the word “genocide.” Hayk daily reports Arzoumanyan as saying: “It’s strange that a 116-year-old party has focused its whole potential on this problem while there are plenty of other unresolved problems in the country.” At the same time, Arzoumanyan notes that even Kiro Manoyan as US Ambassador would hardly recognize the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian Genocide topic is in no way a taboo in the American press. One of the editors of Associated Press says that AP always calls spade a spade. It has always said that the Armenian Genocide did take place, while the US administration keeps denying this fact and just says that there were tragic events during the WWI. AP has never put this term in quotes. Most American politicians link this term with US-Turkish relations. Most of them give priority to Turkey’s entry into the EU and therefore keep silence about the Armenian Genocide. One electoral technologist says that the Democrats will hardly adopt a law on the Armenian Genocide. “The Armenian Genocide took place long ago on some other planet, and ordinary Americans don’t care for it. They care much more for the problem of abortions and the war in Iraq – exactly in this sequence.”

Will Turkey file a claim?

Turkey is drafting new initiatives in the context of the correspondence between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, Turkish FM Abdullah Gul said in the Turkish National Assembly. Referring to Zaman daily (Turkey), ArmInfo news agency reports Gul as saying that Turkey is going to advance new initiatives concerning Erdogan’s proposal to set up a joint Armenian-Turkish historical commission for studying the events of 1915. Gul notes that Turkish and foreign experts are already studying this issue.

The claims of Armenians and the influence of this issue on Turkey’s relations with other countries are one of the key problems of Ankara in the coming decade, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said, while speaking with Turkish MPs about the Armenian Genocide. Gul took interest in the proposal by the MP from the opposition National-Democratic Party, former diplomat Sukru Alakdag for preventing the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Alakdag demanded that Ankara address the Hague Court: “Turkey should say in the court that it is ready to investigate the events of 1915 in line with the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. If the Armenians reject this proposal, this will prove Turkey’s legal and moral rights and will substantially curb the attempts to manipulate this problem for political purposes.” Gul noted that the Turkish authorities give much importance to the opinion of the experienced diplomat and assured that they will do their best for “the triumph of the truth”: “We are thinking about addressing the Hague Court and are consulting not only our own but also foreign lawyers.” (Respublika Armenii).

The idea of Turkey’s addressing international courts, particularly, the Hague Court, is not new. Its author is the retired Turkish diplomat Gunduz Aktan, who was Turkish Ambassador to different European structures for a long time, the director of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Ruben Safrastyan says in an interview to PanARMENIAN.Net. At that time, Turkey had two scenarios: “They were going either to continue denying the Armenian Genocide or to address the Hague Court in hope that the Armenians will not be able to prove that the events of 1915 were a genocide. The General Staff chose to continue the policy of denial,” says Safrastyan. At the same time, he reminds PanARMENIAN.net that Aktan is one of the toughest Turkish politicians and, when a member to the Armenian-Turkish Reconciliation Commission, he always spoke against the Armenia Genocide.

Following the proposal of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, Yeni Safak daily (Turkey) suggests that the Turkish authorities should first examine their own archives. Noyan Tapan reports the daily to say that there are a number of documents proving that the events 1915 were not a genocide but just a deportation. “But, on the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands (let’s not say million) of lost ordinary people who did not take part in wars or revolts, and nobody says anything about documents concerning those people. By such one-sided documents we will not convince anybody of anything,” says the daily. “If we can’t open the archives that may contain such documents, if we prefer opening only convenient archives, we can’t be convincing in the matter; but that’s exactly what we are doing,” says the daily.

Reanimation of the Treaty of Sevres?

The former ambassador of Armenia to Canada Ara Papyan believes that there are all prerequisites for establishing legal protectorate over historical Armenian lands in the territory of Turkey. He says that Armenia should address the UN courts. “Our country should seek to attain the acknowledgement of the Treaty of Sevres as this is the only document signed by the Armenian authorities at the time when Armenia was a subject of the international law,” says Papyan. “If the international community recognizes Armenia’s legal protectorate over a part of the territory of present-day Turkey, Armenia will get access to the transit routes running via its historical lands and will also be able to sue British Petroleum for its failure to coordinate with the Armenian Government the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline,” says Papyan. (ArmInfo).

“Ara Papyan’s approach is quite realistic,” says the “Armenian Cause” officer of the ARFD Bureau Kiro Manoyan. “Article 89 of the Treaty of Sevres empowered US President Woodrow Wilson to draw a border between Armenia and Turkey and he gave Armenia a territory of 160,000 sq km,” says Manoyan.

Armenia-EU

Two events took place in Brussels on Nov 14 and one of them may become historic, says Novoye Vremya daily, meaning the EU-Armenia New Neighborhood Policy Action Plan. “The singing of the Action Plan means new quality of relations with the EU. It is opening up good opportunities for integration into the EU,” says Armenian FM Vardan Oskanyan. Meanwhile, the daily notes that the EU has its own priorities: human rights, democracy, supremacy of law – this is the “price” the Caucasian states have to pay for the New European Neighborhood.

EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana says that to the new neighbors the EU will apply the same mechanisms as it applied to candidate-states. If the signatory-governments fail to comply with the agreements, the cooperation with them will be minimized and, vice versa, if they show commitment to reform their states and societies, they will enjoy growing cooperation and support. Solana says that the EU prefers dealing with the region as a whole. The EU wants the South Caucasian states to cooperate with each other. The EU wants to cooperate with the region as a whole, which means that the regional conflicts must be resolved. “We want to see joint progress… And I very much hope that we will catalyze this process for the sake of peace…” says Solana.

PanArmenian.Net reports EU Special Representative in the South Caucasus Peter Semneby to say that the European Neighborhood Policy provides for financial assistance, but Armenia and Azerbaijan should use the money for reforms in order to become more European. The EU will closely follow the forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in Armenia – it will be an acid-test for the country.

Some political figures and experts say that the EU-Armenia Action Plan signed in Brussels may not only fail to give any profit to Armenia but may even pose a threat to it, says Lragir daily. MP Shavarsh Kocharyan says that after the USSR collapse Armenia was expected to be the fourth post-Soviet republic after the Baltic states to become EU member. “However, in the past 15 years Armenia has gone very far from the European standards,” says Kocharyan. He noted that, today, Armenia should have been an EU candidate, at least. On the other hand, the country still has a chance for effective democratization and for becoming the locomotive of Euro-integration in the South Caucasus. Unless it goes this way, it will get into total isolation, says Kocharyan.

Expert Armen Manvelyan says that that EU-Armenia Action Plan is just a lever of influence for Europe. He says that “the only difference between Bolshevik Russia and democratic Europe is their levers of influence, while their goal is common – to have a controllable Armenia.” Manvelyan believes that blind imitation of the European values may throw Armenia back at the bottom of the ladder.

American political expert Richard Kirakossian says that the EU’s entry into the South Caucasus serves the interests of the US. Of course, there is a rivalry between the US and the EU but, on the other hand, for the US, the EU in the region is a desirable counterbalance to Russia. Kirakossian says that Armenia is facing the threat of isolation. Today, Georgia is moving into the EU the quickest of all, while Azerbaijan may be interesting for the EU in terms of its energy potential. This all can put Armenia into a total isolation unless the country starts doing something about its internal situation rather continues catering for external forces.

If the elections in Armenia fail to comply with the international standards, the EU may decide to strengthen its relations with Georgia and Azerbaijan only, leaving Armenia behind, American political expert Richard Kirakossian said during a press-conference on Nov 18. REGNUM reports him to say that gross violations during the elections may result in the stoppage of the Millennium Challenge program and general disappointment in Armenia. In fact, the international community has set higher standards for Armenia and will be more intolerant to electoral fraud there than in some other countries. If Armenia conducts unfair elections, it will lose one more chance, Kirakossian said. Asked if Armenia may hope that, if democratic, it will be admitted into the EU irrespective of its neighbors, Kirakossian said that the key obstacle in this matter is Armenia’s excessive dependence on Russia. Kirakossian does not insist that Armenia should turn 100% towards the EU, but it should be more self-sufficient and should stop imitating relations with Russia or the EU.

The Economist (UK) notes that despite war, economic collapse and devastating earthquake, Armenia seems to be overcoming its problems. However, this is a limited process: after definite progress in the late 90s, the reforms in Armenia stalled. The famous Armenian brandy exclusive, the country’s export is very insignificant. Armenia heavily relies on foreign aid and transfers from the gigantic Diaspora. Because of migration, the country’s population is much smaller than officially stated 2.9 million. As if rivaling with his patrons in the Kremlin, President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan curbs mass media and rigs elections. Corruption is thriving. You will hardly find any politicians in Armenia who would not like to replace Kocharyan after 2008 and you find it even harder to find anybody believing that the elections 2008 will be fair. Just like Ilham Aliyev, who has inherited his power from his father, Kocharyan is promising reforms in order to calm down the United States, and no surprise that most Armenians have become so cynical in the past years that they no longer expect anything more than that from their authorities, says the Economist. (Radio Liberty Armenia)