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TER-PETROSYAN: 'GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL DECLARATION' TO AFFECT ARMENIAN-TURKISH NORMALIZATION
GENOCIDE | 11.02.15 | 12:12
http://armenianow.com/genocide/60524/armenia_levon_terpetrosyan_genocide_centennial_dec laration
Legal claims set out as a policy in the recently adopted Pan-Armenian
Declaration on the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide will
affect the process of Armenian-Turkish normalization, Armenia's
former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan claimed in an article published
on Wednesday.
In the piece that has appeared on ilur.am online and in the
Chorrord Ishkhanutyun newspaper in hard copy the former head of state
(1991-1998), who leads the opposition Armenian National Congress party
today, speaks critically about some of the aspects of the document
that was promulgated by the State Commission on Coordination of the
events for the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide on January 29.
The 12-point Declaration, in particular, expresses "the united will
of Armenia and the Armenian people to achieve worldwide recognition
of the Armenian Genocide and the elimination of the consequences
of the Genocide, preparing to this end a file of legal claims as a
point of departure in the process of restoring individual, communal
and pan-Armenian rights and legitimate interests."
"While since 1998 Armenia's foreign policy has been based on the
issue of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide and
in response to that the country got the compulsion of setting up a
commission of Armenian and Turkish histories, then by force of the
'Genocide Centennial Declaration' it is the policy of 'claims' that
is assumed as a basis for Armenia's foreign policy," Ter-Petrosyan
wrote, suggesting that such a turn will "extremely complicate and,
for a long time, suspend Armenian-Turkish normalization, a process
that is very necessary for Armenia's future."
Ter-Petrosyan also suggested that the Commission is not a body that is
legally entitled to express "the united will of the Armenian people",
including its worldwide Diaspora. "Only a pan-Armenian referendum,
whose organization, for understandable reasons, is impossible, can
express a legally binding will or opinion of the entire Armenian
people," he said.
In his article the former Armenian leader also spoke critically about
some other aspects of the Declaration.
"In short, published has been, if not necessarily a politically
dangerous, but at least fruitless document," Ter-Petrosyan said.
"Meanwhile, if the Genocide issue were considered exclusively in the
context of human rights, the crime against humanity and the necessity
of Armenian-Turkish normalization, then the Declaration might not
only elicit a broad international response, but also have positive
political consequences for both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh."
GENOCIDE | 11.02.15 | 12:12
http://armenianow.com/genocide/60524/armenia_levon_terpetrosyan_genocide_centennial_dec laration
Legal claims set out as a policy in the recently adopted Pan-Armenian
Declaration on the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide will
affect the process of Armenian-Turkish normalization, Armenia's
former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan claimed in an article published
on Wednesday.
In the piece that has appeared on ilur.am online and in the
Chorrord Ishkhanutyun newspaper in hard copy the former head of state
(1991-1998), who leads the opposition Armenian National Congress party
today, speaks critically about some of the aspects of the document
that was promulgated by the State Commission on Coordination of the
events for the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide on January 29.
The 12-point Declaration, in particular, expresses "the united will
of Armenia and the Armenian people to achieve worldwide recognition
of the Armenian Genocide and the elimination of the consequences
of the Genocide, preparing to this end a file of legal claims as a
point of departure in the process of restoring individual, communal
and pan-Armenian rights and legitimate interests."
"While since 1998 Armenia's foreign policy has been based on the
issue of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide and
in response to that the country got the compulsion of setting up a
commission of Armenian and Turkish histories, then by force of the
'Genocide Centennial Declaration' it is the policy of 'claims' that
is assumed as a basis for Armenia's foreign policy," Ter-Petrosyan
wrote, suggesting that such a turn will "extremely complicate and,
for a long time, suspend Armenian-Turkish normalization, a process
that is very necessary for Armenia's future."
Ter-Petrosyan also suggested that the Commission is not a body that is
legally entitled to express "the united will of the Armenian people",
including its worldwide Diaspora. "Only a pan-Armenian referendum,
whose organization, for understandable reasons, is impossible, can
express a legally binding will or opinion of the entire Armenian
people," he said.
In his article the former Armenian leader also spoke critically about
some other aspects of the Declaration.
"In short, published has been, if not necessarily a politically
dangerous, but at least fruitless document," Ter-Petrosyan said.
"Meanwhile, if the Genocide issue were considered exclusively in the
context of human rights, the crime against humanity and the necessity
of Armenian-Turkish normalization, then the Declaration might not
only elicit a broad international response, but also have positive
political consequences for both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh."