Ask the Armenian prime minister
On Friday, October 19, the editorial board will host a discussion with Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan. Where do you come in, dear readers? Give us some questions!
Click on the "Comments" button, or send us an e-mail with your hard-hitting queries. And to see a whole barrel of links related to the controversial congressional genocide resolution, keep on reading after the jump.
Here's the prime minister's itinerary while in the States. Here's a Turkish Press writer warning about the visit. Here is a dense analysis of the new-to-me "problems of Javakhetia" (having to do with ethnic Armenians living in bordering Georgia). Here is a totally unrelated story about an Armenian member of Parliament who was stabbed repeatedly in a Moscow casino; it was the second time he'd been attacked in the Metropol Hotel.
More to the point, Washington Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt heaps scorn on the genocide resolution:
Imagine what the Armenian diaspora might have accomplished had it worked as hard for democracy in Armenia as it did for congressional recognition of the genocide Armenians suffered nearly a century ago. It's even possible that modern Armenia would be as democratic as modern Turkey. [...]
Things began well [in post-Soviet Armenia], with the honest election of a former dissident as president. But authoritarian tendencies soon emerged, the former dissident rigged his reelection in 1996, and things went downhill from there. As Freedom House noted last year, "all national elections held in Armenia since independence have been marred by some degree of ballot stuffing, vote rigging, and similar irregularities." Meanwhile, opposition politicians have been jailed, protests have been brutally suppressed, and broadcast media have been taken under government control. [...]
[T]he two main Armenian American lobbying organizations in Washington have focused more on security questions -- opposing arms sales to Azerbaijan, for example, and opposing Turkey, Azerbaijan's ally -- than on promoting democracy in Yerevan. Armenia's rulers have known that, no matter how they trample on individual rights at home, the lobbying groups will cover for them here.
Others in the I-can't-freaking-believe-they're-even-talking-about-this-resolution camp include The Nation's Nicholas Von Hoffman, The Guardian's Simon Tisdall, Time's Joe Klein and syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell, who calls it "another effort to sabotage Iraq war." Witnesses for the resolution include Michael Moodian in the L.A. Daily News and Salon's Gary Kamiya, who make an interesting-to-me point about how this issue is symbolic of a largely unremarked-on flight to Realism among the foreign-policy Left:
One of the stranger reversals wrought by Bush's neoconservative foreign policy has been the rejection by much of the left of a morality-based foreign policy. Angry at the failure of the neocons' grand, idealistic schemes, some on the left have embraced a realism that formerly was associated with the America-first right. But by throwing out morality in foreign policy because of the neocon debacle in Iraq, these leftists are in danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The problem with Bush's Middle East policy hasn't been that it's too moralistic -- it's that its morality has been flawed and incoherent.
i belive that resolution is an attempt by armienien community to extort reperation money from the turkish goverenment.and infuse there people with a type of inheritance wealth
Posted by: victor knopp | October 18, 2007 at 02:47 PM
Mr. Prime Minister, do you feel the Bush administration has undermined the signficance of US-Armenian relations, by refusing to recognize the Armenian Genocide, due to what it explains as "tentions with Turkey" Does this push Yerevan into a closer relationship with the Kremlin, as oppose to forging ties with the U.S. "coalition"
Posted by: Artin Gevorkian | October 18, 2007 at 03:02 PM
Mr Prime Minister : France passed a Genocide Resolution that included a 5 year prison term and heavy fine if its citizens denied that it took place. Do you APPROVE ?
Posted by: A.O. | October 18, 2007 at 04:31 PM
Mr. Prime Minister : Do you feel , the UNITED STATES committed Genocide in its history ??
Posted by: A.O. | October 18, 2007 at 04:34 PM
Mr. Prime Minister : Do you and your government believe in FREEDOM OF SPEECH ??
Posted by: A.O. | October 18, 2007 at 04:37 PM
Mr. Prime Minister : Within your history, Did your country commit Genocide (within the 5 points) on the Turkish people ??
Posted by: A.O. | October 18, 2007 at 04:42 PM
Mr. Prime Minister : Do you believe within Leninist disciples that a physical violent force is needed for a REVOLUTION ??
Posted by: A.O. | October 18, 2007 at 04:50 PM
Mr.President: Welcome to the United States of America. Or as my all my neighbors would say, "Bienvenidos a los estados unidos!"
I have a simple question for you:
Which football team do you support Ararat Yereyvan or FC Barcelona?
Posted by: Vikram P | October 18, 2007 at 05:45 PM
Mr.President
What did Armenia do when the genocide occured in Rawanda?
Posted by: Jonathan P | October 18, 2007 at 05:47 PM
Funny about "maybe Armenia can be as modern/democratic as Turkey one day"
In case anyone missed it a journalist was shot dead in broad daylight for saying genocide - and then his son was convicted for "insulting Turkishness" for reissuing one of his father's pieces
Big lobby dollars help distort the truth
Posted by: Bill | October 18, 2007 at 07:08 PM
Mr. Prime Minister: What is tolerance to national minorities in Armenia, specifically to native Azerbaijanies? Why Armenia demands from its neighbers rights that itself never provided to any armenian minorities?
Posted by: Azer | October 18, 2007 at 08:44 PM
Armenia is called a fort-post of Russia in Caucasus. All major Armenian companies are owned by the Russians. What is that Armenia gets in return?
Posted by: anar | October 18, 2007 at 08:48 PM
Mr Prime Minister: Your country recieves armament from Russia to occupy Azerbaijany territory. Your diaspora cries about genocide. Your country and the russians have made eight hundred thousands azerbaijanies refugees. And you still recieve financial aid from US congress via Pallone, Radanovich and the likes. Are you ever able to see azerbaijany point?
Posted by: yagub | October 18, 2007 at 08:53 PM
Mr. Prime Minister: When will Armenia stop its ethnic cleansing in Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh?
Posted by: Patrick | October 18, 2007 at 09:13 PM
Armenian Genocide is a BIG LIE,and lets look at Armenia today how they are killing Azeri people as we speak.
what is going on today,not 92 years ago. and frankly speaking,killing was started by Armenians,
Most of the Turkish man at the front fighting the invaders of their country, and Armenians took the opportunity and made deal with Russians and started to slaughter innocent women and children in Turkish villages,
at the end they were deported and during the deportation they have suffered feminine,and 200.000 died, far less number than 500 000 Turks they have killed and just 15 years ago Armenians killed in same fashion 1000's of Azeri women and children in Khocali and they were condemned by United nations and they still occupied their land,
why no one talks about that, is it because they are not Christians.
this hypocrisy must stop ,and to antagonized only Muslim Allie and democratic secular NATO member is not the best interest of US and the west,
so if you are looking for cleansing look at 650 000 Iraqi es been killed and still bee en murdered by systematic famine's and lack of medicine .
remember this US congressman is elected to protect US interest not to be a puppet to some minority lobby and work for their interest.
Good day Sir
Matthew
Posted by: Mark | October 18, 2007 at 11:56 PM
Sir when are you going to go on to future without uniting your people with this Armenian so called genocide issue,and what do you have to say for your own gemocide in Khocali against Azeri people ?
Posted by: MARK TAKMAN | October 19, 2007 at 12:00 AM
Prime Minister
Why did the armenians kill murder rape all those turkish
people back in 1915.
Are you willing to apologize for this tragedy?
Tim Dylan
Posted by: tim dylan | October 19, 2007 at 12:40 AM
Mr. Prime Minister,
What is your take on the current negative approach to this matter by George W Bush and do you think he's considering politics more important than a country's history?
Posted by: Edward Arakelian | October 19, 2007 at 01:07 AM
Mr. Sargsyan,
1. What does your government think about
a) Belgian massacre in Kongo,
b) French massacres in Algiers,
c) British massacres in India?
Do your governmeht think they could be qualified as genocide as well as the American massacre of the Native Americans?
2. Do you think it's a good way to exert international pressure to the Turkish government(s) and the people to force them admit the Armenian genocide, or might it be a better idea to struggle for the democratisation of both your country and Turkey for a more open environment of debate so that reconciliation would be possible?
3. Is demanding territory from the Republic of Turkey within your long term plans, in case the Armenian Genocide gains a wider acceptance in the international arena?
Posted by: Ertan Keskinsoy | October 19, 2007 at 04:08 AM
On October 17, 2007, President of Armenia Robert Kocharian signed a decree relieving Pargev Ohanian, a judge of a district court in Yerevan, of his duties at the recommendation of the Council of Justice.
It is widely believed that the punitive action is linked with Ohanian's July 16 decision to acquit and free the owner and a top executive of the Royal Armenia coffee packaging company who had been arrested on controversial fraud charges two years ago. The arrests came after they publicly alleged high-level corruption within the Armenian customs.
This story is symptomatic of the prevalence of corruption in current-day Armenia. Your government has so far not been effective enough in rooting out corrupt practices among government officials. How can you explain this monumental failure to clean-up house?
Posted by: Garen Megerditchian | October 19, 2007 at 07:17 AM
Mr. Prime Minister:
What, in your opinion, is the single greatest threat to global "Armenianness" today?
Posted by: melineh | October 19, 2007 at 07:19 AM
As the PM of a small state, what is your strategy to counter the lies and mis-information coming from the Turkish and Azeri side to discredit Armenia?
As you know, our adversaries will do and say anything to cover up the truth. this can be seen from th Turkish denial campaign (who will go as far as saying "Armenians commited genocide on the Turks") to the Azerbaijani destruction of mid-evil Armenia monuments in Nakhichevan.
In short, how can one effectively fight our shameless adversaries in the political realm where they have greater numbers, money and geo-political clout?
Posted by: Not a turk | October 19, 2007 at 07:56 AM
Mr. Prime Minister: Should US Congress Adopt the Res. 106? What do you think as a Statesman?
Posted by: Armen | October 19, 2007 at 09:44 AM
Do you believe that the Turkish blockade of Armenia and the refusal to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia is the continuation of Turkey's genocidal policy of extermination of the last remnants of the Aremnian nation and what remains of the Armenian homeland?
Posted by: Alex | October 19, 2007 at 10:26 AM
Mr. Prime Minister : Do you believe that sedition should have no consequence or should it be rewarded ??
Posted by: A.O. | October 19, 2007 at 12:27 PM