Armenian Reporter:

Raffi Hovannisian discusses protocols and the fruits of genocide

Published: Saturday September 26, 2009

Raffi Hovannisian. Photolure.

Yerevan - In a commentary published on armenianow.com on September 24, Raffi Hovannisian argued, "the exuberance in Western capitals" about the Armenia-Turkey deal announced on August 31 "is based on energy routes, geopolitics and the desire to smooth the way for Turkey as a regional power and EU aspirant. It ignores the sinister aspects of the deal."

Mr. Hovannisian, who served as Armenia's first foreign minister, recently resigned from a seat in Armenia's National Assembly.

He noted that the stated position of the United States and the European Union has coincided with the longstanding Armenian policy of seeking an open border and diplomatic relations without preconditions. But, he wrote, the protocols "will serve to meet two long-standing Turkish preconditions to normalization of relations with Armenia. The first is to forestall further progress in formal international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The second is to confirm and help remove the juridical cloud from the Turkey Armenia frontier."

Mr. Hovannisian, who founded the opposition Heritage Party, argued that "after elections marred by fraud and political violence, the current Armenian administration has been susceptible to Turkish, European and American pressure" on relations with Turkey. "Given the legacy of the Armenian Genocide, European and American roles in promoting, rather than objecting to, these preconditions are outrageous."

"In the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide, President Woodrow Wilson fixed Turkey's boundary with Armenia in an arbitral award issued under U.S. presidential seal. This remains the only binding demarcation of the Turkish-Armenian frontier in accordance with an agreement between sovereign and independent Turkish and Armenian states," Mr. Hovannisian argued. (Other agreements have been signed after the fall of the independent republic in December 1920.)

"Although the de jure border and the award of these territories to Armenia continue to be legally valid, the 1920 invasion of Armenia by Kemalist and Bolshevik forces sealed these lands in Turkey and gave us the current de facto border.

"The great irony is that a significant stretch of the energy and transport routes that are the sources of an emerging Turkish power pass through these territories, which were also the killing fields of the Armenian Genocide. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the parallel natural gas South Caucasus Pipeline do. So will the proposed Nabucco pipeline project. These territories and projects, so vital to Turkey's goal to become a major international energy hub, are the fruits of genocide. And Armenia enjoys none of their political and economic benefits," Mr. Hovannisian continued.

"The enduring legacy of the Armenian Genocide is not just a challenge for Turkey and Armenia. It is also a challenge for Europe and America. The West, despite growing Turkish power and influence, should encourage Turkey to take responsibility for the Armenian Genocide, not assist Turkey in compelling Armenia to agree to preconditions that humiliate the victimized party and prejudice the integrity and outcome of any future genuine reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia."

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