Frontier opening means suicide
"Opening of the Armenian-Turkish frontier will be a suicide for Armenia," Karen Aghamyan, President of the Artist's Union of Armenia, said to A1+.
His kinspeople felt the impact of Turkey's policy. "My grandfather was a head doctor in the Turkish army during World War I, i.e. he was a key official in Turkey. He had numerous Turks servants. After the Turks realised that my grandfather was laying a scheme against them, they massacred my grandfather's kith and kin," tells Mr. Aghamyan. "My grandfather bursts into tears every time he recalls the tragic events."
Karen Aghamyan's grandfather, Hakob Papazyan, put down his memoirs into two volumes. Mr. Aghamyan is going to publish them.
"Turkish Armenian press has referred to Mr. Papazyan this year. They still remember Hakob Papazyan who saved numerous Armenians but lost his kinspeople. Only my grandfather and grandmother survived fleeing to Greece. My grandfather was among the first immigrants who organised the shipping of Armenians to Batumi and then to Armenia where my grandparents settled later."
Mr. Aghamyan is negatively disposed to the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border.
"Turks are playing a dangerous play. They want us to agree to the border opening, even to beg them to open the border. We should be cautious."
"Unfortunately, today's generation is unaware of our history. The books published during the years of independence don't depict the Armenia of those years. The truth is concealed from the youth who must know the true history of our country," notes Karen Aghamyan.
In reply to our question whether the authorities have a right to make a decision on Armenian-Turkish relations without consulting with parties and public structures, Mr. Aghayan said: "I don't think a whole nation can solve such a complicated issue. A nation usually elects authorities to tackle such issues," said the president of the Artist's Union of Armenia.
P.S.
A1+ interviewed Karen Aghamyan before Armenia and Turkey reached an agreement on the normalization of relations in Switzerland.
