Right-wing Armenians stage hunger strike against talks

Right-wing Armenians stage hunger strike against talks


Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Vercihan ZİFLİOĞLU

YEREVAN - Hürriyet Daily News

Supporters of a nationalist Armenian party start a hunger strike in Yerevan to protest the normalization talks between Turkey and Armenia, demanding the resignation of the foreign minister. If the necessary precautions are not taken, they will demand the resignation of President Sarkisian as the next step, says one of the organizers

A right-wing Armenian party has launched a sit-in and hunger strike in Yerevan in protest of the normalization talks between Turkey and Armenia as the government plans to launch political talks on establishing ties with Turkey after decades of hostility.

Nearly 50 members of the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation, or Dashnaktsutyun, protesting outside the foreign ministry on Tuesday said the protocols threatened Armenia’s national interests. They demanded the resignation of Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian due to his role in normalization talks.

Turkey and Armenia last month agreed on steps toward establishing full diplomatic ties – a first for the neighbors. The countries will hold six weeks of domestic debate over the accords, which were drawn up under Swiss mediation, before they are submitted for ratification by their parliaments.

Settling a century of animosity between the two sides would help foster stability in the southern Caucasus, through which Caspian oil flows to European markets. It may also boost Turkey's chances of achieving European Union membership and improve predominantly Muslim Turkey’s relationship with the United States, where Congress has considering labeling the 1915 killings of Armenians as “genocide.”

Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed in 1915 under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey denies this, saying that any deaths were the result of civil strife that erupted when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

Turkey also closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with ally Azerbaijan over Yerevan's backing of ethnic Armenian separatists in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Committee offer

Chanting “No concessions to the Turks!” protesters said they would remain outside the ministry throughout the six weeks of consultations. Protesters said they were especially concerned that the deal calls for the creation of an intergovernmental commission to examine the two countries' historical grievances.

The normalization protocols contain grave threats to Armenia’s national interests, said Tatul Harutyunyan, one of the main organizers of the hunger strikes, adding: “A historian committee offer will certainly be the first pre-condition of the Turkish side. Nevertheless, we will not allow Turkey to make the genocide issue a debate topic.”

Turkey has long suggested that a committee of Turkish and Armenian historians re-examine the events of 1915 and could open ways for Turks and Armenians to come together by using archives in Turkey, Armenia and other countries. But Armenian leadership has rejected the overture, dismissing it as a political maneuver.

Demanding an apology

While giving implicit support to the normalization talks, Harutyunyan said Turkey should give up denying the “genocide” and issue an official apology. “We do want the resignation of Nalbandian because he is the one who has signed the agreements with Turkey. If the necessary precautions are not taken, we will demand the resignation of [Armenian President Serge] Sarkisian in the next step,” Harutyunyan told Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

Meanwhile, Sarkisian will meet with the leaders of Armenia's political parties on Thursday, his spokesman Samvel Farmanian said, as part of internal consultations agreed upon under a deal with Turkey.

“These consultations will be one of the important steps in the public discussion on normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations,” he said. “As the president has promised, these questions, which are of national importance, are becoming the subject of a wide public discussion.”

Nationalist Dashnaktsutyun left the coalition government in April to protest the normalization talks. Sarkisian’s Republican Party, or Hanrabedgan Gusagzsutyun, holds the majority in the parliament with 64 out of 131 seats. Harutyunyan predicted that the protocols would not be approved in the Armenian parliament. “Like the all Armenians across the country, the MPs of Hanrabedgan Gusagzsutyun are worried about our national interests.”

A nationalist Armenian girl holds a placard saying ‘No Concessions to the Turks,’ in a protest against the normalization talks.