860) Reconciliation Of Armenian & Azeri People Inseparable From Reconciliation Of Armenia & Turkey

Representatives of Azerbaijan were also present at a six-sided meeting of citizens and NGOs of the South Caucasus, held in Yerevan July 8-13. Upon returning to Baku Azeri journalist Alekper Aliyev published travel notes Trip from Baku to Erivan, where he distorted the statement of editor of www.southcaucasus.com web-site Luiza Poghosyan on problems between the two peoples. Aliyev interpreted her words as, “The myth on genocide, we are stuffed with, has become a complex for the Armenian society and made it sick. We raise our children in hatred towards Turks. In this case Turks for us are Turkey and Azerbaijan. We are told we won a war, however, actually our entire region lost, specifically we lost. No development is observed, nothing good is taking place. How long can this hatred propaganda last? We cannot work for the future, constantly thinking retrospectively.”
«Azeri journalist Alekper Aliyev was invited to Yerevan as a participant, not a journalist to cover the event and his reports represent his personal impression from what he heard and saw in Yerevan. Thus, in my opinion, he does not have to be literally exact in his wordings,» Luiza Poghosyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

«I spoke of the Genocide when discussing the question of stereotypes. I said the following: «The issue of reconciliation of the Armenian and Azeri peoples cannot be viewed separately from the process of reconciliation of Armenia and Turkey. Hostile stereotypes, rooted in the Armenian consciousness, in most cases are general, referring both to Turks and Azeris. Myths on Genocide, we were fed with for many years during the soviet period, transformed into a doomed concept about eternal hostility between Armenians and Turks, as well as Azeris. I have a deepest conviction that the process of recognition of the Genocide, the process of denouncing the crime against humanity has turned in us, Armenians, into a complex of being exceptional and complex of superiority over the rest of the world. This is the disease, hampering us from adequately perceiving the reality and moving forward. I summed up my statement with a suggestion to the colleagues from Azerbaijan to discuss our capacities and work together in an Armenian-Azeri-Turkish format for joint search for rapprochement and overcoming stereotypes. I want to add also that at our meeting a moratorium for political topics was announced and each of us spoke of the problems of his or her own society,» L. Poghosyan said.

24 July 2006
Panarmenian