Interview with Yegana Salman, head of Israel's Azerbaijani Cultural Centre and a member of the board of the Israel-Azerbaijan Association.
Q: Some experts in Israel, even among the natives of Azerbaijan, recognized hearings on ‘Armenian genocide’ held in Knesset as a big victory of Armenians. How do you assess the event as an active participator of those discussions?
A: Imagine that this opinion is somewhat appropriate, considering that in the past 30 years, some of the MPs demanded to discuss the matter but for the sake of good relations with Turkey, the Knesset did not support this idea. The fact that this year, after many efforts, MPs still managed to organize an open discussion of this issue at the session of the education committee in some extent can be called triumph of Armenians.
Q: How can you explain epidemic statement of the majority of Knesset’s members regarding ‘Armenian genocide’? Is it because of deterioration of Israeli and Turkish relations and disbelief of Israeli MPs in the improvement of these relations?
A: No, of course, the point is not merely deterioration of Turkish-Israeli relations but to completely deny this point in not possible either. We can understand here the main principle if to call to memory an old proverb: ‘Little strokes fell great oaks’. We know very well what propaganda and constant information can do. For over a century, Armenians ‘sing the same song’ all over the world and now it’s in everyone’s lips. This song is titled ‘Armenian genocide’ and it becomes a hit. People around the world are accustomed to hear and started to believe in the so-called "genocide" and the suffering of the Armenian people. And reverse information is hard to bear at the hearing. Nobody knows about the atrocities of the Armenians in Turkey and Azerbaijan and the events connected with the Armenians at the beginning and end of the 20th century. No one knows that the first refugees in the USSR were Azerbaijanis, expelled by Armenians from their ancestral lands. But everyone remembers the events in Sumgait. And it can also be called a victory of the Armenians in the information war. Indigenous Armenian population has been living in Israel for centuries. The population strongly increased over the past 20 years due to the Armenians, who came in mixed with Jewish families. They conduct here intensive propaganda. On the walls of the old city in Jerusalem, more than once I saw the proverbial map of Armenia from sea to sea. They live in the Arab quarter, speak Arabic and so they have established ties with the Arab MPs in the Knesset, which also support the recognition of "Armenian genocide". Other MPs also came under the influence of the Armenians. No wonder, many of them talked about their journeys to Armenia and shared their impressions of being in this country. The meeting presented a book on genocide, published in Hebrew. All this, combined with a sense of solidarity for a common tragedy in the past, increases the chances of a vote in favor of the Armenians at the next meeting. And, of course, if we consider that the ratio of the votes on this issue makes up almost an absolute majority in favor of the Armenians, it means only that in this situation, they win over us and Turkey with a large margin.
Q: It is said that prediction - a thankless task. But still, is there any probability that Knesset will come to its senses until the next discussion of the ‘genocide’ in February 2012 and will make a decision in favor of Turkey?
A: No one can predict it and you know why? This is because everything is possible in the democratic land. If we consider that discussions over the "genocide" were just a miserable minority, it is likely that the next time Armenians will celebrate the victory. And it's not that, as you said, whether the Knesset will "come to its senses," or not. The point is will Turkey come to its senses and begin to spread true information about the events of the First World War. We live in the world of information. The world is ready to receive and absorb any information. You only need to competently and patiently submit it – that’s what Armenians did whenever they were. The Internet is full of information about the fabricated genocide of Armenians, but this information is absorbed throughout the world in huge numbers due to lack of the other - the opposite of information. I think that we too should take this problem seriously instead of wondering how this world does not know the historical facts, and why everyone is against us.
Of course money is required to hold scientific and press conferences, publish and spread the true information in the Internet, shoot movies, bring scientists to Azerbaijan and Turkey and familiarize them with archives. Talking to each other about events in Turkey, Sumgait and Nagorno-Karabakh is not enough. We shouldn’t be the only ones who know it. The nature of man is that if he is truthful and honest, he does not need any excuses and prove his honesty. But when it comes to stories that are written by people who passed from mouth to mouth and garble for centuries in their own way, the consciousness of self-righteousness is not enough. You cannot ignore such a powerful and effective method of struggle as propaganda and the experience of Armenians proves it. You cannot rely solely on the fact that "truth will triumph in the end", because ‘much wood can be mangled’ on the path to the truth. The Azerbaijani nation became victim of its sincere belief in its righteousness.
Q: How can recognition of 1915 events as genocide reflect itself in Israeli and Azerbaijani relations? As far as I know, even some MPs of the Knesset didn’t exclude possibility of aggravation of these relations.
A: The point is many of MPs don’t event link recognition of ‘Armenian genocide’ to Azerbaijan and this is, as I said, due to the lack of information about bilateral relations of Baku-Ankara or Baku-Yerevan and current geopolitical situation in the Caucasus. Of course, no one is interested in deterioration of relations with any side including Azerbaijan, which now occupies an important position in the geostrategic and economic scale of values not only in the East but also Europe.
That is why, at the meeting, which took place last Monday, the Israeli government representatives urged not to vote on the issue of recognition of "Armenian genocide" and asked meeting participants to defer the discussion for another time.
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