“TURKEY IS VERY DANGEROUS IF IT DOES NOT CHANGE”
Support A1+!Hilda Tchoboian, president of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy answers to the questions of “A1+” during the break of the 2nd conference of the European Armenians in Brussels.
- I noticed that many were moved when the archive shots of the Genocide discussions at the European Parliament in 1987 were shown. How can we assess the importance of the resolution after 20 years.
-The recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the European Parliament was not an obvious recognition; this was an attempt to reveal the topic of the Genocide, an event which was made the public property. Besides moral values, the recognition had an important political value - this political document was not aimed at solving the Armenian issue only, it touched the field of relations between Europe and Turkey. The genocide is not only the problem of Armenia. It has become not only the Europe’s problem, but the problem of Europe-Turkey cooperation.
Today the Genocide problem is touched everywhere, it is not a local problem, it is the political and moral problem of the whole Europe.
-Today Europe seems to have withdrawn from its preliminary conditions, the Genocide recognition is not discussed as the precondition for Turkey’s access to the EU.
-The world faces many military-political changes, great movements, and the Genocide issue has become a rather complicated problem in this situation, since Turkey continues to deny, renounce and reject it. Turkey spends much money on this process, works against the universal recognition of the Genocide. Thus, Turkish reaction hampers this process. Turkey continues denying the genocide fact, rejection materials are prepared and disseminated in a very aggressive manner, rejecting websites are created, literature is published and disseminated, new histories are created, even those who participated in the publication of encyclopedia have been persecuted with the aim to change the unwanted paragraphs. We must be able to fight against these challenges, as well as against the renounce of the Genocide.
- Top level figures are engaged in the discussions of the issue at the US Congress. Do Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora have the potential, capacities and means to fight against the Turkish aggressive policy?
-We cannot compare our and Turkish capacities, they are on different levels. Turkey does it through money and political pressures. We believe that our fight is fair. The whole Europe, the whole world is engaged in this fight, we may find various allied powers, nations and countries that will support us in this process.
The Genocide issue is not only a historical problem for us, this is the problem of further safety of Armenia, since if a country like Turkey does not change, then it may be very dangerous. It will change only under the international pressure, the aggressive political doctrine should be altered, otherwise, Turkey, in Europe or out of Europe, is very dangerous for the Armenian nation.
Rusan Amirjanyan
Brussels
P.S. By the way, the Turkish corresponding “active” policy was proved in the hall of the European Parliament. Representatives of various mass media from Turkey participated in the conference, the number of Turkish correspondents prevailed Armenian correspondents.
