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  • Preconditions To Be Set By Armenia

    PRECONDITIONS TO BE SET BY ARMENIA
    Nayira Khachatryan

    Hayots Ashkhar Daily
    11 Sep 2008
    Armenia

    Being yesterday's guest-speaker of "Urbat" (Friday) club, ASHOT
    MELKONYAN, Head of the History Institute of the National Academy
    of Sciences, expressed his viewpoints on the prospects of the
    Armenian-Turkish relations.

    A. Melkonyan finds that Mr. Gul's visit was an attempt by the Turkish
    diplomacy to mitigate the atmosphere of distrust in Turkey. "In all
    the international formats, Armenia has always been against Turkey's
    participation in any process, particularly the settlement of the NKR
    conflict, because Turkey has always assumed a prejudiced, partial and
    an accentuated pro-Azerbaijani stance. But this time, the Turkish
    diplomacy was successful enough to gain some elements of trust in
    certain political circles of Armenia."

    Turkey's proposal on ensuring stability and establishing a platform of
    cooperation and peace in the Caucasus is not something new, according
    to the historian. "The Caucasian idea is not a new idea. It has
    existed since 1918-1920. After signing the Batumi Treaty in 1918,
    the Turkish diplomacy viewed the proclamation of the three newly
    established states as a great favor on its own part; particularly,
    as far as Armenia was concerned.

    I would like to refer to the words of Nuri Pasha who said, 'In 1918,
    we created an Armenia which was in a sack, and the mouth of that sack
    is in our hands. At any moment, we may tie the mouth of the sack so
    that Armenia will suffocate.' "

    The speaker believes that Turkey, which has made a proposal on
    establishing a platform of stability, does not have a vivid picture
    of its further plans.

    "The platform, as a document, has not yet been developed, in my
    opinion.

    When Russia took practical steps towards restoring its weight on
    the regional and why not - the global level, Turkey became strictly
    concerned by that. Besides, Russia is exerting various forms of
    pressure upon Turkey to prevent it from opening a new railroad with
    Armenia, because as a result of the realization of such plans, the
    Kars - Akhalkalaki railroad will no longer be as important, and even
    the possibility of constructing it will vanish.

    In such circumstances, Turkey's haste in terms of proposing a platform
    of stability is quite natural."

    The Turkish proposal was not rejected by the Armenian authorities, and
    that was a right step, as characterized by A. Melkonyan. "The Turkish
    side advanced the proposal on establishing a platform, and it didn't
    open the brackets. Naturally, if the Armenian party had rejected the
    approach, it would have found itself in a very inconvenient situation,
    so to say.

    That's why I believe that welcoming the proposal was the right thing
    to do. As t o what it is, and what the platform implies, we do not
    know that.

    I understand the idea in the following way: strengthening the Turkish
    influence in the region and acquiring a certain degree of trust
    in Armenia.

    Our diplomacy was persistent enough to achieve Mr. Gul's arrival in
    Yerevan, and the fact was viewed as a diplomatic success. But the
    further steps are going to be more difficult. When you go into detail,
    there emerge a lot of problems."
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