Peace is a word “used too much and much too soon”

In the days of “normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations,” peace is the word Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his team manipulate. Pashinyan wants peace with Azerbaijan, a country that perpetrated war against our country, killing thousands of young men, soldiers, unarmed civilians, women and children, occupied almost all of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and still threatens to attack Armenia if its “commands” or conditions are not met. Pashinyan also wants peace with Turkey, a country that committed genocide, killing 1.5 million innocent and unarmed men, women, children, priests and intellectuals, occupied Western Armenia and still denies accepting its crime.

During the days of “revolution,” Pashinyan and his team kept announcing that they were coming to eliminate the crisis and corruption in Armenia. They promised a better and safer life than people currently had. Instead what they brought was an unbelievably devastating war, which was at the expense of more than 5,000 soldiers and 75-percent of land; thousands of people remain homeless, as their village or city was occupied. Now they aim to open an era of peace instead of reforming the economic situation in the country.

Ishkhan Saghatelyan, vice president of the National Assembly and chair of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Supreme Council, noted that “despite omissions, Pashinyan ‘inherited’ a developed country,” and what is left of that country now would have been impossible to imagine a few years back. Physical elimination of Armenians was Turkey’s dream and main mission for hundreds of years, so it’s hard to even imagine how “peace” would look.

Antalya Diplomacy Forum

The Antalya Diplomacy Forum will be held on March 11-13. It is expected that representatives of 30 international organizations, including NATO Secretary-General and Secretary General of the Council of Europe will be in attendance. It is an event that mainly Muslim countries attend, the ones that Erdogan wants to be subject to him thereby spreading his power. None of the attending countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide.

Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu welcomed PM Pashinyan’s announcement saying his country will most likely attend the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan unofficially announced that he will attend with NA vice president Ruben Rubinyan. Predictions about discussion topics are erratic. Some think that after the Artsakh War, we can no longer talk about the Genocide or the NKR issue, mainly due to preconditions Turkey has brought forth. At the most, they can discuss either the economy or opening borders.

Preconditions? Never heard of them.

Rubinyan keeps insisting that there are no preconditions involved in the process, yet many experts prove the opposite.

The Parliamentary opposition is sure that the authorities are hiding the reality. The ARF was always in favor of normalizing relations without preconditions. Party members believe that preconditions like the Armenian Genocide, the recognition of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and Turkey’s borders, are imminent. From this point of view, it becomes quite clear that most of these preconditions have been met or are in the process.

Perhaps more will be revealed at the next meeting between the special representatives of Armenia and Turkey on February 24 in Vienna.