Via EAFJD this interesting lecture of His Excellency Ara Papian, where he proves, that Armenia has all legal grounds to demand from Turkey to return its lands, and that the land area of Armenia should be 103,599 sq/km, instead of 29,800 sq/km internationally recognized area of today.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytG09FVk-XY&rel=1]
I personally find it hard to believe, that anything or anyone can force Turkey to give up its land area to Armenia. However, I think that people like Ara Papian and Armen Ayvazyan, who’s views on Armenia-Turkish relations are often qualified as “extremist” and “leading to nowhere”, are doing something really important. We need these views to be spoken out loud, and heard. We need even to press for them on the state policy level and excerpt as much pressure on Turkey as possible. Diplomacy is one big trade after all – and we need to start with the maximum price and go gradually down, to where both sides can compensate and reach an acceptable solution.
I think the Armenian state policy of today is rather week on that matter – we don’t even know what that policy is to be honest. They say “resumption of diplomatic relations without pre-conditions” and they don’t even say what the state policy is on the matter of Genocide recognition. Once Onnik Krikoryan asked me, what would I consider satisfactory solution of Armenia-Turkey relations. My answer:
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Turkey must recognize the Armenian Genocide.
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Turkey must pay due remunerations to Diaspora Armenians and those in the territory of Armenia, who have lost the lives of their relatives during the Genocide.
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Turkey should open the border.
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Turkey should give Armenia privileged access to one of its port-cities and tax-free passage through its territory from Armenia to that port-city and back.
Did I forget anything?
[…] in Ottoman Turkey. While the blogger says that territorial reparations are unlikely, he says that Armenians should demand maximum compensation from Turkey before gradually compromising from a positi…. Share […]
My ideal satisfactory solution would be having territory that stretches from Baku to Cilicia – basically the whole of what is Azerbaijan now, Southern Georgia including Tbilisi and the Eastern half of Turkey.
But we do not have resources for that. The last opportunity would have been during WW2 if the Armenians could convince Stalin to have land access to the Mediterranean and as a case for compensating for our Genocide. But we were too weak then.
so basically you’re saying, that my points about opening the border, access to port city and tax-free passage through Turkish territory are not realistic? May I ask why?
I don’t think I wrote anything about realistic solution.
I have my doubts about any of the four steps you mention is something that Turkey will do currently. None of it is in its interests: they are successfully sweeping the Genocide under the rug, and the closed order doesn’t bother them (especially after the Kars-Tbilisi railway is open).
If you look at the situation realistically without emotions, you realize that Armenia-Turkey relations will not improve in a way that matches your four points. We just have to have a ‘yerkate sherep’ to scoop things up when the opportunity arises.
What about a confederation of Armenia that will include the currently kurdish populated wester Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. If we had a democratic and a strong country like Swizerland or Israel this could be possible.
The world is fed up of Turkey, it is too much burden on anybody. They would happily replace it with a country which is more modern and forward looking.
Our chance is to build such a country in the next 30 years and become an isle of democracy and modernity in the region.
I have thought about the confederation idea. The problem with that is that the Kurds are more numerous than us and will dominate. But on the other hand, they live on our lands.
one Q to all of you living abroad, please:
Will you be back to Armenia and live in the territories returned by Turkey?
We are now experiencing the population migration from Kharabakh to Armenia.
Voice from Armenia, I think a lot of people would return to their ancestral homes (I would love to return to Cilicia where my family comes from). But there is no need to ‘jure chtesatz bobkvel’.
Heck, the spyurqahay would return to Armenia and Karabagh as a lot of them have done. But if a few conditions were right, there would be a lot more influx instead of the handful of patriots/opportunists now.
The conditions for such a mass return to Armenia or Karabagh are but not limited to:
– respect for individual freedoms. Very few people who live freely would want to live under the conditions in Armenia now;
– respect for law and order. This includes respecting the property rights of people who are not in the elite, no corruption, little red tape, etc.
– non discrimination towards spyurqahay. During the mass migrations in the past, the repatriates were labeled with the derogatory term ‘akhpar’. I don’t know how it is with the recent repats but based on the fact that most f them stay in central Yerevan and interact among themselves says something.
So basically, tolerance and rule of law would be sufficient conditions for people to repatriate to Armenia or Karabagh and permanently settle there. There are a lot of lessons the Armenian authorities can learn from Israel.
This is pure fantasy for the time being.
We must be patient and wait some more.
What is a pure fantasy – tolerance towards Diaspora Armenians and rule of law in Armenia?
Dream and dream. Please read your history and take lessons. There are 8 million Azeris in Azerbaijan, 25 in Iran and 70 million Turks in Turkey. Do you really think that you will get an inch of territorry? Wait and see what will happen in Karabakh.
You had that chance during WW1 and you lost half of your population and at that time Ottoman Empire was collapsing. If you try this again, I believe there wont be any Armenians alive in the Middle East. You are bunch of fanatics. The population of Armenia is barely two million and people are trying to find ways to migrate Europe or USA. If I were you, I will try to find ways to increase the standards of living in Armenia instead of dreaming about “greater Armenia.”