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WHERE ARE ARMENIA'S PARTNERS FOR PEACE?
by Aram Suren Hamparian
asbarez
Monday, November 8th, 2010
It's self-evident that peace talks are held between enemies,
not friends. And it's reasonable to expect that in any serious
negotiations, both sides will need to reconcile some big differences.
That's OK.
We all want peace.
And peace comes at a cost, and requires compromise.
You know the talk: Search for common ground, conflict-resolution,
mutually-agreeable compromises, bridge-building, etc.
It all comes across sounding very reasonable.
Except...when it's not.
Especially when only one side has a true interest in peace.
Consider Armenia's potential partners:
Azerbaijan: Baku is still nominally part of the OSCE Minsk Group peace
talks charged with finding a negotiated settlement of the Karabakh
issue, but every single material action it takes undermines hope
for peace, namely its war threats, cross-border attacks, torture of
prisoners, and multi-billion dollar arms build-up.
The Armenian side has rolled up it's sleeves and is working for a
lasting peace, but Azerbaijan's leaders, most likely because they
want to steer domestic attention away from their own failings, seem
intent on continuing their march toward a new Caucasus war.
Turkey: Ankara remains technically engaged in Protocols talks with
Armenia (primarily to defer progress toward universal acknowledgment
of the Armenian Genocide), but, having already criminalized domestic
discussion of this atrocity (the core point of contention), has now
actually started, as a result of its own President's legal actions,
jailing it's citizens for the "crime" of calling someone else an
Armenian. (Turkey simply cannot act as a partner for peace with Armenia
while at the same time using its legal system to define Armenians as
the functional equivalent of an obscenity.)
Armenia has taken major, even reckless risks for peace, while Turkey,
as its leaders, laws and legal system so clearly demonstrate, has yet
to give an inch in terms of its hardline Genocide denial, its blockade,
and its other patently anti-Armenian policies.
Sadly, despite all of Yerevan's good-faith efforts and the highest
hopes of the international community, neither Baku nor Ankara have
shown yet that they are ready to step up as serious partners for
peace with Armenia.
From: A. Papazian
by Aram Suren Hamparian
asbarez
Monday, November 8th, 2010
It's self-evident that peace talks are held between enemies,
not friends. And it's reasonable to expect that in any serious
negotiations, both sides will need to reconcile some big differences.
That's OK.
We all want peace.
And peace comes at a cost, and requires compromise.
You know the talk: Search for common ground, conflict-resolution,
mutually-agreeable compromises, bridge-building, etc.
It all comes across sounding very reasonable.
Except...when it's not.
Especially when only one side has a true interest in peace.
Consider Armenia's potential partners:
Azerbaijan: Baku is still nominally part of the OSCE Minsk Group peace
talks charged with finding a negotiated settlement of the Karabakh
issue, but every single material action it takes undermines hope
for peace, namely its war threats, cross-border attacks, torture of
prisoners, and multi-billion dollar arms build-up.
The Armenian side has rolled up it's sleeves and is working for a
lasting peace, but Azerbaijan's leaders, most likely because they
want to steer domestic attention away from their own failings, seem
intent on continuing their march toward a new Caucasus war.
Turkey: Ankara remains technically engaged in Protocols talks with
Armenia (primarily to defer progress toward universal acknowledgment
of the Armenian Genocide), but, having already criminalized domestic
discussion of this atrocity (the core point of contention), has now
actually started, as a result of its own President's legal actions,
jailing it's citizens for the "crime" of calling someone else an
Armenian. (Turkey simply cannot act as a partner for peace with Armenia
while at the same time using its legal system to define Armenians as
the functional equivalent of an obscenity.)
Armenia has taken major, even reckless risks for peace, while Turkey,
as its leaders, laws and legal system so clearly demonstrate, has yet
to give an inch in terms of its hardline Genocide denial, its blockade,
and its other patently anti-Armenian policies.
Sadly, despite all of Yerevan's good-faith efforts and the highest
hopes of the international community, neither Baku nor Ankara have
shown yet that they are ready to step up as serious partners for
peace with Armenia.
From: A. Papazian