Amanda Paul – Today’s Zaman
Last week an Armenian schoolchild asked Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan whether the return of western Armenia along with Mount Ararat to Armenia would be possible in the future.
The president’s reply, (which I have taken from the Armenian government’s website) was as follows: “It depends on you and your generation. I believe my generation has fulfilled the task in front of us; when it was necessary in the beginning of the 1990s to defend part of our fatherland – Karabakh – from the enemy, we did it. I am not saying this to embarrass anyone: My point is that each generation has its responsibilities, and they have to be carried out, with honor. We are a nation that always rises from the ashes like a phoenix – again and again.”
To say the least, Ankara was not over the moon about this statement. The Turkish Foreign Ministry released a written statement condemning Sarksyan’s remarks, labeling them as proof that Sarksyan has no intention of working for peace. In addition, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has demanded an apology from Sarksyan; otherwise “Armenia will have to face the consequences.” Given the response from the Armenian side, the comments for example from Deputy Armenian Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan, “The hysteria stirred up by Turkey is of an ostentatious, artificial character,” I think Erdoğan may be waiting some time for his apology. However, no matter how the Armenians try to dismiss or play down the comments of Sarksyan, they were without doubt provocative and unnecessary. At a time when Armenia and Turkey are trying to build bridges, and the international community is rallying to achieve progress on the decades old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabkah, such remarks are extremely unconstructive.
It is particularly negative in light of the efforts being made by civil society and others from the two countries to increase people-to-people contacts and find ways to further dialogue and understand each other. Indeed, last week Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu took part in a brainstorming session with an Armenian civil society group, looking at what sort of initiatives could be carried out to achieve more positive ties between the two neighbors, which currently have no diplomatic relations and a closed border; Turkey closed the border with Armenia in the early 1990s following Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani lands during the Karabakh war. This region tragically remains a hostage to history for which many parties are to blame, and it is up to each one to take steps to face up to the roles they have played rather than provoking others, in particular youth, into further adopting the very thing we should be trying to remove, an ideology of hate. While we cannot change the past, we need to take constructive steps to bring about a brighter future for the peoples of the region. Rather than filling the minds of young children with this sort of irresponsible nonsense, it would have been far wiser to send that message. While Armenian’s may enjoy the breathtaking views of Mount Ararat, today it is part of Turkey and will remain that way. As Turkey is also having to face up to issues that were taboo in the past, albeit slowly, it is also the responsibility of others in the same region to do the same if one day peace and security is going to win over instability and hatred.
Furthermore, all this took place while the prime minister was on a business trip to Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, with all the attention placed on Sarksyan, Turkish-Azerbaijani business perhaps did not get the attention it may otherwise have done. However, unless I missed something, it would seem that nothing new came out of the visit. Azerbaijan continues to dance around the issue of offering Turkey a free visa regime because of Iran, while the two countries seem to be having something of a standoff over finalizing and signing gas and transit agreements, a situation that risks delaying the sale of gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II field, which is due to happen on Oct 1. However, it offered the opportunity for Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to wade into the topic of President Sarksyan during a press conference with the Polish president. Caught up in this trade of insults, the Polish president, who is visiting the region as part of the EU’s Polish presidency, at least had the common sense not to say anything at all. However, no doubt it also gave him a taste of the colorful and rather intransigent politics of the region.
So what started as probably an off-the-cuff reply to a little boy’s question has turned into a ping-pong game of insults between the three nations. Politicians should really think before they speak. After all isn’t it the responsibility of statesmen to prepare their societies, and in particular young people, for a peaceful future rather than keep them mired in their troubled past?
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