Rustamyan: "We've turned into hostages"
"Armenia should not plan based on illusions which are the reason for our failures," announced member of the ARF Supreme Body, NA Deputy Armen Rustamyan as he touched upon Turkish-Armenian relations during the pan-Armenian forum of the Armenian National Committees.
According to him, Armenia must free itself from the illusion that Turkey has changed, has left the ideas of pan-Turkism aside and there is controversy between Turkey and Azerbaijan.
"Turkey has never ceded its national interests. It is absolutely vain and self-deceiving to think that Turkey and Azerbaijan have differing objectives and that Armenia can play with those discrepancies. It is crystal clear that they are the same nation in two different states," said Rustamyan.
Armen Rustamyan is sure that Armenia must free itself, rather than suspend the Protocols which, according to him, have always been dangerous.
According to him, the main challenge in Turkish-Armenian relations was that Armenia thought it would come out of isolation by starting the process and that establishing relations with the neighboring country would minimize the danger of a war.
"But we saw the opposite. Today we hear more about the possibility of war and it seems that Armenia has turned into a hostage. We have to free ourselves from this state of being a hostage as soon as possible."
ARF Bureau members Hakob Ter-Khachaturov and Levon Mkrtchyan also spoke at the pan-Armenian forum of Armenian National Committees. In his opening speech, Levon Mkrtchyan stressed that the forums are important in terms of organization and political-moral.
"The forum is an occasion for us to be able to make necessary value judgments and project the political course for the years to come."
The Armenian National Committee pan-Armenian forums are held once every two years. The forum will last until May 10 with two sessions in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The participants will also meet with President of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan.
