Nationalists Launch Hunger Strikes Against Turkey Reconciliation Deal

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by Marianna Grigoryan 17 September 2009 Philologist Mkrtich Hambardzumian similarly equates the Turkey of the Ottoman past with the Turkey of the present. He takes issue with Turkish assertions that Turkey’s border with Armenia cannot be reopened until Armenian forces withdraw from Azerbaijani territory surrounding Karabakh. “What are we talking about? Turkey forgetting its bloody history now tries to interfere with the Karabakh issue,” he fumed. “I’m not a political scientist, but the protocol is worrying.”

Suspicion in Yerevan about Turkey’s motives is far from universal, however. Some passers-by at the protest commented on the irony of a former government coalition member now staging hunger strikes to block a government policy. Other Yerevan residents said protestors should consider the future. “I don’t say we need to forget the past,” said 25-year-old designer Emma Babaian. “But two neighbors cannot live with closed borders forever. Bilateral relations will help Armenia economically and will offer an alternative route to Europe.”

The protests are not limited to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. The Heritage Party, the only opposition party represented in parliament, has written Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian about holding a referendum on the protocols. Earlier, Heritage Party leaders proposed a vote of confidence in the president, and a petition to the Constitutional Court. On 15 September, the party called on all members of parliament to appeal for “radical” changes in the protocols.

“The development of Armenian-Turkish relations cannot directly or indirectly be linked to the establishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” asserted the Heritage Party’s parliamentary faction secretary, Larisa Alaverdian.

Meanwhile, Suren Surenyants, a senior supporter of ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosian, the head of Armenia’s main opposition coalition, argues that Turkey wants to take on a leadership role in the South Caucasus, and will, therefore, try to play the role of an impartial mediator on Karabakh. The documents pose no danger to Armenia, he continued. Those casting doubt on Turkey perhaps are trying to conceal their own private agenda, he hinted. “Political groups should be sincere,” he said. “Either we want [to establish] diplomatic relations [with Turkey], which means we need these protocols, or we do not.”

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