Armenian authorities’ 'pacifist rhetoric' ahead of April 24 'reflects treacherous approaches' – opinion

The Armenian authorities’ pacifist statements, voiced ahead of the April 24 Genocide Memorial Day, demonstrate their treacherous approaches recognizing no sacred value, according David Sahakyants, a popular animation filmmaker and a merited artist of Armenia.

“I believe that these authorities, which used to accuse [third President] Serzh Sargsyan of ‘losing touch’ with the reality, are now themselves developing similar attitudes. I am confident that 90 per cent of the society does not accept the ideas and opinions which they are trying to impose on us in every possible way, making statements unrelated to the reality in an effort to demonstrate that they are fulfilling orders,” he said in an interview with Tert.am.

In the course of his visit to the Armavir region on Sunday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan voiced an appeal for “revising attitudes despite having enemies in the region". Also Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of the Security Council, avoided a direct reference to the topic as sat down for an interview with the Public Television of Armenia. When asked whether Turkey is the enemy of Armenia, he gave very evasive responses three times, stressing instead the importance of “corrections in approaches”.

"They are making pacifist statements ahead of April 24 because those people do not seem to have a fatherland; they do not have sacred values or a genetic memory. That’s a treacherous approach which we are forced to confront time and again. I cannot give any other characterization. It looks as though people without any belief – without any ethnicity at all -  have come to power in Armenia. The society is not prepared to forgive all they [the Turks] did to our grandmothers and great-grandmothers,” he added.

Sahakyants said he doesn’t think that peace can be achieved unilaterally given that the development of friendly ties and economic relations require mutual efforts, "which isn’t absolutely realistic".

“Even if Turkey and Azerbaijan pretend that they are on the way [towards developing friendly relations], we can never believe and trust the Turk. We must learn lessons from history. When one Turk smiles on you while another is stabbing you from the rear, how is it possible to make a statement of the kind - after so many losses inflicted by the Turkish military supplies and troops? We need to do all our best to get rid of the ‘internal Turk’. Any outcome and decision that may be against the internal enemy would be acceptable to me. We are too late, but if we surrender now to hand over everything to them, we will eventually lose all we have,” he said, stressing the importance of strong efforts to change the current government.