Saturday, 7 November 2009
Good evening, dear compatriots,
It seems to be obvious that “Arm Tech” should be further expanded and improved. We drew many lessons over the past 3 days. Firstly, we understood that contacts like these provide a good opportunity for our team to define the scope of priority actions. Some of our visions concerning Armenia’s role and upcoming efforts should be reconsidered, while others have proved successful and should be continued.
Some points of our program have stood the test of time, so we should further strengthen and build on them. One of today’s keynote speakers – perhaps the representative of Ericsson - made the following phrase: “The past is created today, and the present will come tomorrow.”
The idea of a quickly changing world is reflected in this phrase. Rapid transformation is the dominant feature of the modern world, and we must be ready for such changes. After the visit to the Silicon Valley it has become clear that government programs on information technologies need changes. The world has since made a huge advance. Our programs have gone outdated while we were trying to implement them. We must “reload” them as ArmTech provides such an opportunity.
The second major point is that Armenia needn’t apply to global companies, but instead global companies should approach Armenia. This idea surprised me at first. The world is becoming smaller and smaller, and competition between big companies is stiffening. No spare room is left. The entire world is caught up in a network today, and there is no point in looking for a territory outside this network. This leads us to a third conclusion: Transnational companies are competing for a position not in the present and even not in the future markets since all the positions are occupied already. The Blue Ocean Strategy comes to the fore as there is no longer spare room left for us. We are late and we should find our “ocean,” our niche of competitive advantage.
ArmTech is supposed to help us find an answer to this question because ArmTech gives us an exclusive opportunity to realize the logic behind worldwide developments, the rules of competition and the general pattern of the future day. “Where is our niche in the future?” We must find an answer through this forum. No global company will think for us. They only look at expanding their business and strengthening their future position. We used to think that knowledge and thought would bring prosperity to us. I understand that knowledge and thought is necessary, but not sufficient today. There is another and more important precondition of success. There should be aspiration based on knowledge and the ability to think, a great desire of and a deep belief in the change. We will not have a future without such an aspiration. I think that we should search for answers to these questions. Where can this stimulus, this desire of a change be taken? The situation in which we are does not meet our needs. It is necessary for ArmTech to mobilize those people well aware of the need of making changes.
The Armenian World has become a reality: this ever-changing and shrinking world demonstrated it clearly. We, the Armenians are closely related by mutual ties in this uniform Armenian World, and we should rather focus on the future tasks instead of getting busy shaping the Armenian World now as it is a fait accompli. We must clearly see the ways for changing our mentality and amending the traditional organization of the Armenian World and Armenia itself, our country, our government: we must understand what kind of thinking is needed for these changes. This is the circle of issues to be addressed now.
We needn’t build something existing. Instead, we must change what exists already. Are we ready to such a change? Regretfully not, since our aspiration to the change encounters a resistance greater than the aspiration itself. We are extremely conservative in the Armenian World. We do not accept and reject any new idea. We see numerous threats, risks and it turns out that the best formula is to do nothing: this is a bad idea. But this illness of ours has an objective background: our people underwent genocide at the turn of the past century: we have the severe legacy of history referred to as genocide. Unlike the other genocide-hit nations, it had much a deeper impact on the history of our people. We were denied the right to normal development, deprived of our native land, those territories on which we used to live for several hundred centuries. We lost thousands of intellectuals, our leading “elite,” and our 5 thousand-strong army of clergy. We face the task of overcoming the genocide-related problems and inhibitions because we will not have a future, if we fail to address them right now. We have gone through a very hard and severe history, but we are called to get on the winning side. We should be stronger: we must become even stronger and tackle a breakthrough.
The president of our country has declared: there has come the time to carry out changes, to have a future. We cannot forget the genocide, and I do think that all those present in this hall trust in my sincerity, trust in our belief. We cannot forget it because I myself, my family, every Armenian has personally experienced the consequences of the genocide which prevent us from critical development. We are all well aware of it. Unfortunately, following the genocide the Armenian people was not given the opportunity to enjoy full independence, realize national goals and tasks. The Soviet era was not the time of normal development: we have been denied the opportunity to think in freedom, we have been torn off church and our national values. We lived in a totalitarian system which generated some institutes of statehood while taking away the possibility of deciding national problems, because the Soviet Union was a kind of State with totalitarian ideology in which there was no freedom.
Today we have such freedom, but it turned out we are not ready to manage it. We are taking our first steps in this respect, and there has come the time to set big tasks and make big changes.
It seems to be clear that the philosophy of developing Armenian-Turkish relations is perceived with discontent by many people. Due to the genocide we have numerous problems today, but if we want changes, we are obliged to look ahead. We should develop a strategy to bring about victories in the future. This strategy was proclaimed by the President of the Republic. It consists in that we should manage to forge modern-type civilized relations with our neighbors - Turkey and Azerbaijan. It is in the best interest of our people and the Armenian world. The Republic of Armenia is the driving force behind the Armenian World and, as a nation we only can exist under the following key precondition: we must have a strong and powerful Republic Armenia. We have a number of important tasks to address, but we must set certain priorities.
The recognition of the genocide is a major task for our nation because we the Armenians have always been keen on justice. The Armenian people cannot put up with injustice. Not only did Turkey and the Turks, but also the whole international community treat us unfairly with the latter having turned a blind eye to the fact of genocide. We will have to make huge efforts toward genocide recognition by different States. It is unfair that the genocide is not recognized as yet, but I am convinced that it will be recognized inclusive of Turkey. It is inevitable.
Which is the path leading to this objective? A key target for the Armenian world and the people of Armenia is to have a strong and powerful state which can provide for national security. Security not only for the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, but also for all Armenians: this primordial task, including the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, is being addressed in the Republic of Armenia. Are we entitled from a priority perspective to attach greater significance to genocide recognition rather than to national security, or the question of genocide acknowledgement should be placed in the second rather than the first place.
Today the future of the Armenian nation is at stake: our national security is at risk, and if we fail to create a modern, democratic, quickly developing Republic of Armenia, we shall lose everything.
Those of our neighbors with whom we have problems are developing quickly. Their today's ideology is dangerous for our nation. Therefore, under this strategy the settlement of the Armenian- Turkish relations is extremely important to all of us. Turkey is officially striving to EU membership.
In this respect, the Republic of Armenia is the second most interested in it nation, behind Turkey. We should do everything for Turkey succeeds on this path. Why? Because on the way to the European Union Turkey will have to carry out serious reform. It should become a modern democratic country respecting the rights of all nations and ethnic groups.
It is understood that by saying genocide recognition, we mean first of all that Turkey itself should recognize it. It is our target. Now, let us see which is the shortest way leading Turkey to that objective? The Office of Hay Dat, all traditional parties give courageous and realistic estimations of whether Turkey is ready to recognize the genocide. Everyone says no. Then which is the right path since our struggle is not an end in itself. We want Turkey to recognize the genocide. There is only one way leading to it, namely that Turkey undertook reform. If Turkey carries out reform, it will come to respect all such human rights as are valued in the European Union, and we will be closer to our purpose of achieving genocide recognition. Therefore Turkey’s adherence to reform and EU membership is in the best interest of our people. The lesson to learn is as follows: We should give up the anti-Turk turn of mind and have a pro-Armenian thinking.
Yes, what is bad for Turkey is not always good for Armenia. Today Turkey wants to be a member of the European Union, and it is very good for Armenia, it is in the best interest of our nation. I mean that dialog has no alternative: if Turkey declares reform, we should back it. Dialogue in this sense is the best course of action. It will enable us to capitalize on the potential generated during reform in Turkey. These are thousands of Turkish intellectuals who accept the fact of genocide, recognize the genocide, and it has been made possible only due to the ongoing changes and transformations in that country. I am often asked whether I feel that Turkey will succeed on this path. The probability is insignificant, but there is no alternative for us, and we are obliged to take advantage of this historical opportunity because it is in the best interest of the Armenian nation. Here, I would like to evoke the words of the President of the Republic addressed to the Armenian people stating that the Armenian-Turkish relations cannot call into question the fact of genocide. Secondly, the settlement of the Armenian-Turkish relations should not be tied up with the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Thirdly, the question of border recognition is to be solved under international law.
These are the key theses. Unfortunately, many turn out to be unaware of our official position on the foregoing questions, and there is much speculation about it.
This is why I considered it my duty to refer to these questions once again. At the same time, I wish to conclude my speech by noting that the settlement of Armenia-Turkey relations needs to be examined through the prism of RA President’s and Government’s shared philosophy as a single one. All of us should get rid of our inhibitions. We must be prepared to living in a modern fast-evolving world. And, in this respect, ArmTech is expected to stimulate and inspire us ahead to changes.
Thank you.
