“The ANC, excluding one of the organizations in the congress, is for prompt development of the Armenian-Turkish relations and is ready to support the Armenian government in relation to this issue,” said the first president of Armenia during the recent rally of the opposition. Following the rally this suspected organization or person was discovered, thus it became clear that Zhirayr Sefilyan and his organization, the Armenian Volunteers’ Union National Initiative, are against the ANC’s policy concerning the mentioned issue. Recently he also announced that he does not think there is any positive development in the Armenian-Turkish relations because Turkey is becoming an intermediate of the process of Karabakh conflict settlement. Zhirayr Sefilyan also said that there was only one organization, which did not share Ter-Petrosyan’s opinion. He says that the parties, which have different opinions, are working on a document for the purpose of making the issues of their cooperation and opinions clear. The document is still being drafted and since it is not ready yet Sefilyan will not publish the names of his supporters. Recently it also became clear that another party under the ANC’s umbrella, the SDPA is against the mentioned approach too. “This is an established fact and we have told Ter-Petrosyan about our opinion. We agree with the basic principles of Ter-Petrosyan’s policy but are strictly against the prospective of opening the borders in this phase. First of all we think that there are too many law problems in our country and there will be some problems with national security too. We are concerned of the possibility of immigration and inflow of Kurds into our country in case of opening the borders and other such issues. It will change the demographic picture of the country,” said the SDPA representative L.Sargsyan.
L.Sargsyan thinks that before opening the border Armenia should solve some problems concerning national security and specific laws on acquiring property. “Of course we have a law on land regulations but it does not keep us safe from the invasion of Turks, immigration of Kurds, etc. The number of people leaving from Armenia is growing day by day and it may bring to very bad results. We have very important problems in the congress, and these are the problems that made us unite. This problem concerns having a legitimate government in our country,” said Mr. Sargsyan.
As for Zhirayr Sefilyan, he believes that “it is nonsense to open the border with Turkey until we establish a national state.” “I think that Turkey is not an ordinary but enemy neighbor. The prospective of opening the border with Turkey in such conditions of economic, social, demographic and moral environment may be dangerous for the national security. Armenian people are not interested in open borderline until these problems are solved,” Sefilyan says.
He says that in case of establishing a national state the name of the Republic of Armenia should be changed and be called State of Eastern Armenia. “This name contains a lot of information in it; it contains the issues of Artsakh, Nakhijevan, Javakhk and Gardmank as well. With this action we will also make it clear that the Western Armenia exists too which I think is very important. I know what the policy of demanding justice should be like but I don’t want to speak of it now. By saying a national state I also mean that the value of the Armenians inside the country should be estimated very highly and the power institutions of country should be managed by people with morality but not materialists as it is now,” says Zhirayr Sefilyan.
Sefilyan has discussed this issue with Ter-Petrosyan but the only thing that they can cooperate on with the other political parties of the Congress is the efforts to establish a constitutional order in the country. Sefilyan pledges that the powers of the Congress don’t cooperate under the umbrella of an ideology because since Ter-Petrosyan is the leader and his charismatic ideologies seem to be more valuable. However, the main disagreement they have with the congress is the issue of Nagorno Karabakh and the Armenian-Turkish relations. “As for the inner issues and policies, I think that Ter-Petrosyan had a good experience when he was in office, he had difficult experience too. I believe that in terms of the inner policy he will be more successful then during the past time when he was in office. We want him to become president and we are endorsing him for that purpose. We are expecting from him to clean up the Augean Stables. But if he tries to solve the issues of Karabakh and Armenian-Turkish relations, we will struggle against him too and try to get rid of him too,” threatened Sefilyan.
He also discussed the similarities and differences in the government’s foreign policy. Thus, he believes there are three opinions concerning the above mentioned. “The first opinion is the opinion of the government or Serzh Sargsyan, the second one, which may sound strange, is the opinion of Ter-Petrosyan and the ARF, and the third one is our opinion, which is against any relationship. Even though we don’t agree with Ter-Petrosyan’s policy to open the borders as soon as possible, we agree with his allegation that the policy adopted by Serzh Sargsyan is a policy of betrayer because the fact that the issue of the Genocide was not addressed properly and a commission of historians will be formed is treason. I believe that he will not be for recognition of Armenia’s borders by Turkey either, which is the same as the agreement of Kars. The Turks have always dreamed of the day when Armenia would sign that agreement. I don’t know why Ter-Petrosyan did not speak of this issue in his recent speech but it is discussed now because I believe that without solving this problem the Turks will never sit at the same table with Armenians. The similarity of Ter-Petrosyan’s and the ARF’s opinions concerns this issue too. As for the third opinion, it is our opinion, which we will introduce in details very soon,” says Sefilyan and pledges that Ter-Petrosyan should use this difference of policies for the purpose of taking the power.
Sefilyans says that the difference between Serzh Sargsyan and Ter-Petrosyan is that the latter is a politicians who acts exclusively for the state interests. As for Serzh Sargsyan, he has nothing to do “with unity of Armenians and other related values.” “What I say is that Ter-Petrosyan’s opinions may seem to be against the nation or tending to lose, but it does not mean that this person in difference with Serzh Sargsyan does not care about the country. Serzh Sargsyan is only thinking of keeping the power,” pledged Sefilyan. He thinks that the disagreements concerning the foreign policy in the ANC should not be a reason for separating. “The more disagreements there are we should try to do better to keep this unity for the sake of replacing this power. I have numerously said that the Congress represents the power of tomorrow. By saying the power of future I mean the power on the top of the state administration, as well as opposition,” said Zhirayr Sefilyan.