“We want to see improvement in the Armenian parliamentary elections. We don’t expect perfection, but we do expect to see progress. That is important,” announced assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State on Europe and Eurasia Daniel Frid during his meeting with representatives of foreign mass media last week in Washington.
“Frankly, Armenia- taking into consideration the strength of the Diaspora and its relations with the West-should have been ahead of Georgia. However, I ask the question: does Armenia really correspond to democratic reforms? Armenia should have been in a better situation. It should have been progressive, it should have been a prosperous country,” said Frid.
As far as Armenia’s blockade is concerned, the American government official said that Armenia is not in a blockade and has an exit through Georgia, and it is not as if Armenia does not have any contact with the world. With regard to Armenian-Turkish relations, Frid said that Turkey and Armenia “must seriously discuss their total history”.
“That must be a discussion by historians. The U.S. does not deny any massacre. They are historically true facts, but historians need to discuss the events thoroughly. What happened? Why did it happen? Who did it and what did they do?” announced Frid, emphasizing that Turkey must open its border with Armenia and restore normal relations.
“We are pleased to see what Turkey has been doing recently, like the reconstruction of the Armenian Church in Western Turkey, even as a museum,” he said.
Frid also expressed the certainty that there is a demand among Turks for reconciliation. He explained this thought in the following way:
“Hrant Dink was assassinated by an extreme nationalist, but after that, 100,000 Turks came out to the streets saying “We are all Armenians”, We are all Hrant Dinks”. That means to reject nationalism. We see tolerance by the Turks. That is promising. It is what we wish to encourage.”
Frid also denied that Turkey is making threats to the U.S. by claiming to close all paths of American military support in Iraq in the case of approval of the Armenian Genocide resolution in Congress. According to Frid, the Turkish government has never threatened the U.S. He added the following as he mentioned that “Turkey is a good ally as well as a country that is being subject to deep democratic transformation”:
“We encourage them to conduct research on their history and the painful past that can be called “dark specks”. They are not the only country that has that kind of a history. The U.S. also has dark specks, such as slavery, Americans’ attitudes towards the Indians, and Americans’ attitudes towards the Japanese during World War II. There are many things in our history that we are not proud of.”