“When a wolf shows its teeth, it does not mean that it is smiling at you.” Harut Sassounian about “positive signals” coming from Turkey

Recently, at the government sitting, Nikol Pashinyan touched upon the topic of regional peace, spoke about certain positive signals coming from Turkey.

“We will evaluate those signals, we will respond positively to the positive signals,” he said, without giving further details.

This statement was widely criticized. Various social, political and professional circles stated that the Turkish “positive signals” are just old and new preconditions.

By the way, the reaction of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was not late, he made public his vision of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. During a press conference, he stressed that the region needs a constructive approach – respect for each other’s territorial integrity, sovereignty. According to Erdogan, history should not be a source of hostility, that constructive steps are needed for lasting peace and coexistence. The Turkish President assured that Azerbaijan also has such a position and noted that Baku offered to start negotiations with Armenia for a comprehensive peace agreement.

The Turkish President reiterated his proposal to establish a six-party platform in the region after the recent Artsakh war. In an interview a few days ago, he said that they can cooperate without Georgia’s participation. “The platform offer of 5 or 6 countries is on the table: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran and Armenia.” The Turkish President stressed that he had discussed the issue and agreed not only with the President of Azerbaijan but also with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin. “A new president has come to power in Iran, we will discuss with him.” There is no talk of discussing with Armenia.

He said that under these conditions Turkey is ready for “unconditional” relations.

Harut Sassounian, an American-Armenian public activist and editor-in-chief and publisher of The California Courier, regrets that the Armenian side has been talking about relations without preconditions, while Turkey itself has been pushing for preconditions.

“The prime minister has been saying for three and a half years that something bad has happened, it is the fault of the former, but in this one issue, relations with Turkey, he repeats that position. Now Pashinyan is continuing in the same direction, repeating word for word the same thing we heard 12 years ago: normalization of relations with Turkey without preconditions, opening of borders. Meanwhile, it is Turkey that has set preconditions for Armenia, but in reality it should have been the exact opposite. “We should have set preconditions,” said Harut Sassounian, reminding, “For many years, Turkey had set three preconditions: the return of Artsakh lands to Azerbaijan, renunciation of the Armenian Genocide issue, and recognition of Turkey’s territorial integrity.” The first was already implemented by force, with Azerbaijan taking over most of Artsakh, now there are two conditions left, but we see that Erdogan puts new conditions on the table, for example, he talks about the signing of a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which means that Armenia will officially return the rest of Artsakh to Azerbaijan.

All these are political games, the misfortune is that the Turks are very cunning politicians, they do everything for their own benefit. It is the Armenian side that is unaware of political games. I do not see any positive signal from Erdogan, the Prime Minister made a big mistake by saying that he sees, and we are ready. This will have a very bad ending. “

In the past, when talking about possible relations, Turkey did not simply intervene in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, but today it is a fact that Turkey directly intervened in the 44-day war and supported Azerbaijan. In this case, how right and logical is it to speak again about relations without preconditions, to allocate paragraphs in the government’s program for overcoming enmity and establishing peace in the region? In response to this question, our interlocutor stressed. “Germany committed genocide against millions of Jews during World War II. And if it happened that the Arabs attacked Israel nowadays, and Germany sent an army to help the Arabs, to destroy Israel, do you know what noise would be raised all over the world? that former genocidal Germany is still committing genocide. This is exactly our situation. Turkey committed genocide more than 100 years ago, it was not enough, in September last year it renewed its genocidal ambitions, with its weapons, its terrorists, its servicemen, it was a reason to continue the genocide that started 100 years ago.

And we perceive all this as very normal, we are talking about establishing good-neighborly relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan in the region, making unilateral concessions. I assure you that those concessions are endless. even if the Armenian side is early

If Erdogan agrees to these concessions, he will put new demands on the table. This is not the end, this is only the beginning, especially since Turkey and Azerbaijan are not stupid, they see that the Armenian leader says “yes” to everything, so he is ready for endless concessions.

We do not understand these endless concessions, we interpret them as ostensible signals from Turkey to Armenia. It is not so. As people say, when a wolf shows its teeth, it does not mean that the wolf is smiling at you. The more we say yes, the more the Turks will be enthusiastic and will demand more. “The only thing the Armenian leaders have to do is put everything aside, try to strengthen the country militarily so that we can defend ourselves, and start saying ‘no’ to all the concessions that our enemies want us to make.” Continuing the thought, Harut Sassounian once referred to the 44-day war.

“I understand that Armenia lost the war, and Azerbaijan, Turkey are in a more dominant position, they impose their will, it is so clear to all of us, but it is not clear how the Prime Minister interprets this bad situation in favor of Armenia. is in the interest.

For example, the opening of communications says that it is in Armenia’s interest when those roads are very harmful to Armenia, he thinks that establishing relations with Turkey is in Armenia’s interest, which is the exact opposite, signing a peace treaty is in Armenia’s interest, which is wrong.

If the Prime Minister understood a little bit about politics, diplomacy, to honestly say to our people, dear people, we have lost the war, now we are weak, our enemies are strong, and we do not want to, but we have to do it, at least it would be clear, but if he says “All these things that our enemies are doing are very good, it is in our interest, we are happy, that is what is incomprehensible,” the American-Armenian public figure concluded.

Let us remind you that the Armenian-Turkish border has been closed since 1993. 1991 Turkey officially recognized the Republic of Armenia on December 24, 2012, but bilateral diplomatic relations have not been established.