Türkiye's Saturday on Armenia: a private envoy visit, with Yerevan's 7 June election a month away
Three retired Turkish ambassadors, including Hasan Servet Öktem — a 1984 ASALA assassination-attempt survivor in Tehran — spent three days in Yerevan a month before Armenia's 7 June election, meeting ex-foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and historian Gerard Libaridian. Their reading: Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has paid a domestic price to pursue unconditional normalization with Türkiye but is boxed in by the unopened Alican border crossing and an Armenian constitution that frames 1915 as genocide and parts of eastern Türkiye as 'Western Armenia.'
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tr68Retired Turkish envoys press Ankara for concrete normalization steps before Armenia's 7 June vote
Three retired Turkish ambassadors, including Hasan Servet Öktem — who survived a 1984 ASALA attempt on his life in Tehran — and Ömer Önhon, spent three days in Yerevan meeting Armenia's former foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, the Karabakh-government veteran Karel Mirzoyan and historian Gerard Libaridian a month before the 7 June general election. Their reading is that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has paid a domestic price to pursue unconditional normalization with Türkiye but is boxed in by the unopened Alican border crossing and an Armenian constitution whose 1991 preamble references the 1915 events as genocide and whose Article 11 designates parts of eastern and southeastern Türkiye as 'Western Armenia.' Pashinyan polls around 30 percent against Samvel Karapetyan, whose Strong Armenia Party leader is under house arrest on coup-conspiracy charges, while Russia, with heavier on-the-ground leverage than a 1,800-strong US embassy, has signalled it cannot warm to Yerevan while Karapetyan is detained.
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Retired Turkish envoys press Ankara for concrete normalization steps before Armenia's 7 June vote
Three retired Turkish ambassadors, including Hasan Servet Öktem — who survived a 1984 ASALA attempt on his life in Tehran — and Ömer Önhon, spent three days in Yerevan meeting Armenia's former foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, the Karabakh-government veteran Karel Mirzoyan and historian Gerard Libaridian a month before the 7 June general election. Their reading is that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has paid a domestic price to pursue unconditional normalization with Türkiye but is boxed in by the unopened Alican border crossing and an Armenian constitution whose 1991 preamble references the 1915 events as genocide and whose Article 11 designates parts of eastern and southeastern Türkiye as 'Western Armenia.' Pashinyan polls around 30 percent against Samvel Karapetyan, whose Strong Armenia Party leader is under house arrest on coup-conspiracy charges, while Russia, with heavier on-the-ground leverage than a 1,800-strong US embassy, has signalled it cannot warm to Yerevan while Karapetyan is detained.
Three retired Turkish ambassadors, including Hasan Servet Öktem — who survived a 1984 ASALA attempt on his life in Tehran — and Ömer Önhon, spent three days in Yerevan meeting Armenia's former foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, the Karabakh-government veteran Karel Mirzoyan and historian Gerard Libaridian a month before the 7 June general election. Their reading is that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has paid a domestic price to pursue unconditional normalization with Türkiye but is boxed in by the unopened Alican border crossing and an Armenian constitution whose 1991 preamble references the 1915 events as genocide and whose Article 11 designates parts of eastern and southeastern Türkiye as 'Western Armenia.' Pashinyan polls around 30 percent against Samvel Karapetyan, whose Strong Armenia Party leader is under house arrest on coup-conspiracy charges, while Russia, with heavier on-the-ground leverage than a 1,800-strong US embassy, has signalled it cannot warm to Yerevan while Karapetyan is detained.