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Armenia’s president is about to make history by signing an agreement with Turkey. It would open up their shared border and end nearly a century of hostility. The deal makes economic sense for Armenia. But many Armenians living abroad feel it absolves Turkey of responsibility for what they call the Genocide of 1915. The World’s Aaron Schachter has more.
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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World. Turkey and Armenia are about to sign an historic document. It’s aimed at ending nearly a century of hostility. The agreement would normalize relations and open the border between the neighbors, but it doesn’t tackle some of the toughest issues dividing them. Right now, Armenia’s president is on the road to drum up support among Armenia’s powerful Diaspora. It hasn’t been going that well. In Lebanon, thousands of angry Armenians turned out last night to protest, and that’s only the latest show of disapproval for the plan. The World’s Aaron Schachter reports from Beirut.
AARON SCHACHTER: It hasn’t been an especially pleasant few days for Armenian President Serge Sargysan. That was his reception from Armenians in Paris on October 2nd. The reaction in New York and Los Angeles was only marginally less hostile. Armenians in Lebanon are also none too pleased with Sargysan. Many of them hail from what they call Western Armenia, now Eastern Turkey, and they believe the agreement being signed this Saturday absolves Turkey of any responsibility for, as they say, “Stealing that land and for slaughtering more than a million Armenians in 1915.” The Agreement calls for setting up a joint committee to look into events between 1915 and 1923, and it doesn’t address the land issue. Hrayr Barsoumian is a student who organized a rally last night against the Turkey-Armenia detente.
HRAYR BARSOUMIAN: Right now, to give them all that they wanted to achieve by the genocide by a simple signature is as the second genocide to the Armenians. We can’t discuss the genocide. It’s a fact. There are governments that have recognized it. There are countries that have recognized it.
SCHACHTER: Signs hanging in the predominantly Armenian neighborhood of Bourj Hammoud near Beirut declare, “We remember. We demand. We refuse.” And 2000 turned out to protest the Armenian President at a Beirut area hotel where he was meeting local Armenian leaders. Sylvia Vartanian says it’s crazy that Armenians are being asked to forgive and forget for Turkey’s sake.
SYLVIA VARTANIAN: Is it acceptable we should not demand anything; we should not talk about the genocide? Do you find it logical? I mean, look at the German people. They said, “Okay, what our ancestors did was wrong” and they compensated.
SCHACHTER: But some in the Armenian community here say the Diaspora’s all or nothing mentality doesn’t serve the interests of Armenians inside their country.
AGOP KASSARDJIAN: From their point of view they are right to do it, and it is very kind of the President to take this initiative. He didn’t have the obligation. His obligation was only moral.
SCHACHTER: Agop Kassardjian is a former Lebanese politician and a leader in Lebanon’s Armenian community. He says the Diaspora should get a chance to express its dissatisfaction, but the Armenian President has to engage in a much more delicate balancing act.
KASSARDJIAN: The development of Armenian economy necessitates that the borders be open between Armenia and Turkey. But this must go in parallel taking into consideration our feelings and our thinking living in the Diaspora for the Armenian question for the Armenian genocide.
SCHACHTER: Kassardjian says he doesn’t believe that Armenia is giving away the store by signing the agreement. He expects the pressure on Turkey to remain, and that’s exactly what Armenia’s President has been trying to tell people on his trip.
PRESIDENT SARGSYAN: [In Armenian]
SCHACHTER: President Sargsyan said our main wish after nearly 100 years of hostility is to establish relations with Turkey without any precondition. It’s also important for preventing further genocides, but he said the recognition of the genocide itself shouldn’t get in the way of establishing normal relations with Turkey. Though many Armenians are offended by the idea of a committee of historians that would look into what they consider the cold, hard historical fact of genocide, Turks consider it a compromise. That’s because Turkey outright rejects the genocide label. It maintains that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife in 1915 when Armenians took up arms against their Ottoman rulers, and sided with invading Russian troops. For The World, I’m Aaron Schachter in Beirut.
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