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Aravot, Armenia
June 4 2010
Where are the youth of the Republican Party of Armenia?
The chairman of the New Times Party believes that the loop around
Armenia is getting tighter
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev will arrive in Istanbul on 7 June to attend a summit of the
Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia
[CICA] and will also discuss issues pertaining to energy security of
the two countries. Apart from bilateral ties, the Russian prime
minister will discuss regional issues, in particular issues linked to
Iran's nuclear programme with the Turkish leadership. Meanwhile, US
Secretary of Defence Robert Gates will visit Azerbaijan as part of his
Asian tour to settle issues linked to routes of cargo supplies to
Afghanistan.
To what extent may Armenia's problems be discussed during these
top-level visits against the background of tense Turkish-Israeli
relations? Answering this question by Aravot paper, the chairman of
the [minor opposition] New Times [NT] party, Aram Karapetyan, says
that a few months ago he discussed these prominent geopolitical issues
in Aravot paper and urged the Armenian authorities to be reasonable
and serious. In all these he ascribes not the least importance to
Turkey's own game - neo-Ottomanism, i.e. the establishment of a new
Ottoman empire. In this context he says the failure of the
Armenian-Turkish protocols [on the normalization of relations] was
Armenia's chance to escape a disaster "by withdrawing little by little
in order not to become a party involved in neo-Ottomanism".
Karapetyan predicts that after the redeployment of 150,000 [US] troops
from Iraq to Afghanistan, which will be the result of Gates's Asian
tour, Iraq will be divided into three parts, and the Kurdish part will
be quite independent, even if a Kurdish state has not been established
in the northern part of Iraq. He also advises that the role of the
Jewish lobby in geopolitical processes cannot be overestimated either.
In this situation Karapetyan urges our authorities not to "get on
their high horse". "We do not have to take sides with anyone; we do
not have to pass any geopolitical path together with the Turks as our
problems have not been resolved yet. Israel is a friendly country, but
no more than that, we cannot put our 700,000-strong diaspora at risk.
We should not yield to provocations," the NT leader said.
According to Karapetyan, the role of Azerbaijan is increasing and the
role of Armenia is decreasing in the region. He is also concerned
that: "If a decision is made to impose sanctions against Iran, do the
Armenian authorities realize that our country will have to support
this decision as Armenia is a UN member?"
Incidentally, US ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch talked about
this recently: "Those will be UN sanctions, and Armenia is a UN
member." Karapetyan described this turn of events as "dangerous" and
said that he did not imagine what would happen to our border since
Georgia was in an unstable situation: "We can find ourselves blocked
from the four sides and we will have to only - the whole world will
tell us - open borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey. The loop around us
is getting tighter with time, and the role of the country is
decreasing. We are carrying out such an unintelligent policy that
Russia does not understand anything either. We are rolling here and
there like a ball."
From: A. Papazian
June 4 2010
Where are the youth of the Republican Party of Armenia?
The chairman of the New Times Party believes that the loop around
Armenia is getting tighter
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev will arrive in Istanbul on 7 June to attend a summit of the
Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia
[CICA] and will also discuss issues pertaining to energy security of
the two countries. Apart from bilateral ties, the Russian prime
minister will discuss regional issues, in particular issues linked to
Iran's nuclear programme with the Turkish leadership. Meanwhile, US
Secretary of Defence Robert Gates will visit Azerbaijan as part of his
Asian tour to settle issues linked to routes of cargo supplies to
Afghanistan.
To what extent may Armenia's problems be discussed during these
top-level visits against the background of tense Turkish-Israeli
relations? Answering this question by Aravot paper, the chairman of
the [minor opposition] New Times [NT] party, Aram Karapetyan, says
that a few months ago he discussed these prominent geopolitical issues
in Aravot paper and urged the Armenian authorities to be reasonable
and serious. In all these he ascribes not the least importance to
Turkey's own game - neo-Ottomanism, i.e. the establishment of a new
Ottoman empire. In this context he says the failure of the
Armenian-Turkish protocols [on the normalization of relations] was
Armenia's chance to escape a disaster "by withdrawing little by little
in order not to become a party involved in neo-Ottomanism".
Karapetyan predicts that after the redeployment of 150,000 [US] troops
from Iraq to Afghanistan, which will be the result of Gates's Asian
tour, Iraq will be divided into three parts, and the Kurdish part will
be quite independent, even if a Kurdish state has not been established
in the northern part of Iraq. He also advises that the role of the
Jewish lobby in geopolitical processes cannot be overestimated either.
In this situation Karapetyan urges our authorities not to "get on
their high horse". "We do not have to take sides with anyone; we do
not have to pass any geopolitical path together with the Turks as our
problems have not been resolved yet. Israel is a friendly country, but
no more than that, we cannot put our 700,000-strong diaspora at risk.
We should not yield to provocations," the NT leader said.
According to Karapetyan, the role of Azerbaijan is increasing and the
role of Armenia is decreasing in the region. He is also concerned
that: "If a decision is made to impose sanctions against Iran, do the
Armenian authorities realize that our country will have to support
this decision as Armenia is a UN member?"
Incidentally, US ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch talked about
this recently: "Those will be UN sanctions, and Armenia is a UN
member." Karapetyan described this turn of events as "dangerous" and
said that he did not imagine what would happen to our border since
Georgia was in an unstable situation: "We can find ourselves blocked
from the four sides and we will have to only - the whole world will
tell us - open borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey. The loop around us
is getting tighter with time, and the role of the country is
decreasing. We are carrying out such an unintelligent policy that
Russia does not understand anything either. We are rolling here and
there like a ball."
From: A. Papazian