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 YEREVAN
(RFE/RL)–President Serzh Sarkisian said on Thursday that he will
tour major Armenian communities abroad early next month to
explain and promote his far-reaching diplomatic overtures to
Turkey which the Diaspora have been following with unease.
Sarkisian made the
announcement as he met with His Holiness Karekin II, the
Catholicos of All Armenians at Echmiadzin. He said he will start
on October 1 a series of visits to Paris, New York, Los Angeles,
Beirut and Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
All of those cities and
their surrounding areas have sizable Armenian communities.
Sarkisian was quoted by his press service as telling the
Catholicos that he wants to hear community leaders’ “views on
the process of the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations.”
Karekin II welcomed the
initiative.
“The Diaspora is an
important and inseparable part of our people and it is only
right for our Diaspora sons … to be able to hear answers from
you personally to questions preoccupying them,” said Karakin II,
according to the presidential press service. “Also, you will
expose yourself to the thoughts, opinions and concerns of our
Diaspora sons.”
Diaspora leaders have
expressed serious concern about key points of two
Turkish-Armenian draft protocols envisaging the normalization of
bilateral relations. They are particularly critical of the
planned creation of a Turkish-Armenian panel of historians that
would probe the Genocide.
The Diaspora also opposes
another protocol clause that commits Armenia to recognizing its
existing border with Turkey based on past relevant treaties.
This clause will preclude future Armenian claims to the
territories of historic Armenia illegally occupied by the
Republic of Turkey.
His Holiness Aram I,
Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia added his voice to
those concerns in a letter to Sarkisian made public on Thursday.
“The ongoing developments in the establishment of diplomatic
relations between Armenia and Turkey have become a cause for
serious concern in the Diaspora,” he wrote.
Aram I singled out the
planned “sub-commission” of historians for criticism. He said
its existence would make it easier for Ankara to deny the
Armenian Genocide.
Etchmiadzin has rarely
challenged Yerevan governments and will likely be more
supportive of the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement. Karekin II
told Sarkisian that the church’s Supreme Spiritual Council will
meet soon to discuss and formulate its position on the issue.
The planned meetings will
be part of “internal political consultations” which Ankara and
Yerevan pledged to initiate before signing the controversial
protocols by mid-October. Sarkisian described the intensifying
debates on the matter as “very useful.”
“Of course, they have some
emotional manifestations and elements,” Sarkisain told Karekin
II. “And it could not have been otherwise because a huge segment
of our people are a generation of persons subjected to genocide.
Besides, we have our shrines, our churches, our [medieval]
capital and the remnants of many, many people’s ancestral homes
across the [Turkish] border.”
“I do realize this because
often times I myself internally struggling with my emotions,”
added Sarkisian.
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