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NOTHING NEW: ARF MEMBER SAYS TER-PETROSYAN REMAINS TRUE TO FAILED POLICY ON TURKEY
Genocide | 12.02.15 | 10:39
GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
related news
Ter-Petrosyan: 'Genocide Centennial Declaration' to affect
Armenian-Turkish normalization
A chief foreign-policy spokesman for the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (ARF) sees nothing new in the criticism of Armenia's
first president regarding the Pan-Armenian Declaration on the 100th
Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. According to Giro Manoyan,
Turkey's president would readily sign under many of the thoughts
voiced by Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
Ter-Petrosyan, who led Armenia as its first president in 1991-1998
and today heads the opposition Armenian National Congress party,
voiced criticism regarding some points and aspects of the Declaration
in an article published by the Ilur.am news website and the Chorrord
Ishkhanutyun newspaper on Wednesday.
His main criticism concerned the paragraph of the 12-point Declaration
that "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."
Ter-Petrosyan suggested that the policy of claims will "extremely
complicate and, for a long time, suspend Armenian-Turkish
normalization, a process that is very necessary for Armenia's future."
Giro Manoyan, Director of the International Secretariat of the ARF
Bureau in Yerevan, says that although Ter-Petrosyan's policy in the
matter of relations with Turkey had failed to produce the expected
result, he still remains committed to his stance and continues to
insist that Armenia should continue that way.
"He says that no one can speak on behalf of all Armenians. It means
that we can never have a pan-Armenian view and present anything as
a pan-Armenian view. This is also his [Ter-Petrosyan's] approach to
seeing Armenians as separate parts," Manoyan told ArmeniaNow.
To Manoyan it is also unclear why Ter-Petrosyan thinks that by
supporting representatives of Turkish society who recognize the
Armenian Genocide the Declaration puts them in danger.
"In other words, according to Ter-Petrosyan, we have nothing to do,
everything is up to Turkey to decide. It is Turkish nationalists who
should be deciding, and we have to follow obediently," he commented.
"There is nothing new in what he [Ter-Petrosyan] said, just as there
is nothing new in the Declaration. When Ter-Petrosyan says that it is
a "fruitless" document, if it is really so, it is regretful that he
wasted his time for writing an article about it. But, nonetheless,
he expressed his view, a view that has proved wrong based on his
own experience."
Vartan Oskanian, who served as Armenia's foreign minister in
1998-2008, also made a comment following Ter-Petrosyan's article. He,
in particular, pointed out contradictions between the Declaration
and the Turkish-Armenian protocols that were signed in 2009 and are
now still on the "big agenda" of the Armenian parliament.
"The contradictions between the two documents, to put it mildly,
weaken the affirmation in the Declaration of the issues related to
the Armenian Genocide recognition and legal claims regardless of what
we think about the expedience of raising them in the Declaration,"
Oskanian wrote on his Facebook account.
Ara Papyan, a lawyer, historian and diplomat who heads a Yerevan-based
think tank, Modus Vivendi, also considers the Declaration to be
realistic only if the Armenian parliament revokes the Zurich protocols.
http://armenianow.com/genocide/60550/armenia_genocide_100_declaration_levon_terpetrosya n_reactions
Genocide | 12.02.15 | 10:39
GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
related news
Ter-Petrosyan: 'Genocide Centennial Declaration' to affect
Armenian-Turkish normalization
A chief foreign-policy spokesman for the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (ARF) sees nothing new in the criticism of Armenia's
first president regarding the Pan-Armenian Declaration on the 100th
Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. According to Giro Manoyan,
Turkey's president would readily sign under many of the thoughts
voiced by Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
Ter-Petrosyan, who led Armenia as its first president in 1991-1998
and today heads the opposition Armenian National Congress party,
voiced criticism regarding some points and aspects of the Declaration
in an article published by the Ilur.am news website and the Chorrord
Ishkhanutyun newspaper on Wednesday.
His main criticism concerned the paragraph of the 12-point Declaration
that "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."
Ter-Petrosyan suggested that the policy of claims will "extremely
complicate and, for a long time, suspend Armenian-Turkish
normalization, a process that is very necessary for Armenia's future."
Giro Manoyan, Director of the International Secretariat of the ARF
Bureau in Yerevan, says that although Ter-Petrosyan's policy in the
matter of relations with Turkey had failed to produce the expected
result, he still remains committed to his stance and continues to
insist that Armenia should continue that way.
"He says that no one can speak on behalf of all Armenians. It means
that we can never have a pan-Armenian view and present anything as
a pan-Armenian view. This is also his [Ter-Petrosyan's] approach to
seeing Armenians as separate parts," Manoyan told ArmeniaNow.
To Manoyan it is also unclear why Ter-Petrosyan thinks that by
supporting representatives of Turkish society who recognize the
Armenian Genocide the Declaration puts them in danger.
"In other words, according to Ter-Petrosyan, we have nothing to do,
everything is up to Turkey to decide. It is Turkish nationalists who
should be deciding, and we have to follow obediently," he commented.
"There is nothing new in what he [Ter-Petrosyan] said, just as there
is nothing new in the Declaration. When Ter-Petrosyan says that it is
a "fruitless" document, if it is really so, it is regretful that he
wasted his time for writing an article about it. But, nonetheless,
he expressed his view, a view that has proved wrong based on his
own experience."
Vartan Oskanian, who served as Armenia's foreign minister in
1998-2008, also made a comment following Ter-Petrosyan's article. He,
in particular, pointed out contradictions between the Declaration
and the Turkish-Armenian protocols that were signed in 2009 and are
now still on the "big agenda" of the Armenian parliament.
"The contradictions between the two documents, to put it mildly,
weaken the affirmation in the Declaration of the issues related to
the Armenian Genocide recognition and legal claims regardless of what
we think about the expedience of raising them in the Declaration,"
Oskanian wrote on his Facebook account.
Ara Papyan, a lawyer, historian and diplomat who heads a Yerevan-based
think tank, Modus Vivendi, also considers the Declaration to be
realistic only if the Armenian parliament revokes the Zurich protocols.
http://armenianow.com/genocide/60550/armenia_genocide_100_declaration_levon_terpetrosya n_reactions