Our official position is that international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not among our foreign policy priorities today. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this in an interview with Turkish media.
“This is an official formulation, but in this context there are issues the clarification of which is very essential and important, and I mainly constantly talk about these issues in a working mode both in Armenia and abroad, in conversations with our compatriots, and I think this is a good opportunity to talk about it publicly. First of all, I must say that, because these discussions and speculations also take place in Armenia, and not only in Armenia, it is talked about denial, denying or forgetting the Medz Yeghern.
I want to be very clear that in Armenia and among Armenians, this is an indisputable truth. In other words, it is simply impossible to deny or disavow it in our reality, because it is an undeniable truth for all of us, but this is not what we are talking about. I want to tell you directly, if I am not mistaken, about a speech I gave recently during a meeting with Armenians in Munich, when I said the following: dear compatriots, when the parliament or government of a distant country makes a decision, we are very excited about that decision. This is the case in our reality and there is no secret in it, and even those very distant countries, when they make such decisions and when the excitement or joy from that decision fades, the next moment the following question arises: what does that decision give us in our relations with our immediate environment? When we have tensions in our immediate environment, to what extent do those tensions contribute to stability, peace, etc. in our country, in our region, and so on.
It is also here that the question arises, where and how should we focus on serving the state interests of Armenia, and how and where should we focus on emphasizing what we know, including historical truths, and relying on those truths,” – he said.
According to him, the period in which that great tragedy occurred was a period when there was no Republic of Armenia.
“Today there is the Republic of Armenia, an internationally recognized state, and that internationally recognized state has the opportunity to ensure the security and well-being of its own citizens, but certain conditions are necessary for this, and in this regard Armenia is not a unique country. And I again emphasized this during the meeting with our compatriots, I said, look how much all countries and we all attach importance to peace, but peace is first and foremost a regional phenomenon. I can present, for example, of course I was talking about it with a little humor, that our Government has had a very great international achievement and we can guarantee peace for the Republic of Armenia with Australia. I apologize to our Australian partners for mentioning it like that, although there is nothing wrong with saying that.
In other words, we have a very great achievement, peace, but with Australia, but with New Zealand, but with Brazil, which we really have, and we are happy that we have normal relations. But we need peace and good relations first of all in our environment, in our relations with our immediate neighbors, because peace, the peace that brings concrete results for the security and well-being of our country, is peace here,” – he added.
