Neither Turkey nor Azerbaijan is taking steps to prepare their societies for peace, and Armenians remain targets of hate propaganda. This was stated by Turkologist Varuzhan Geghamyan.
“Any competent expert studying Turkey and analyzing the real situation in the country will confirm that anti-Armenian hate propaganda persists there. Not only does it continue, but it shows no signs of abating. On the contrary, since 2020, there has been a sharp rise in hostility toward Armenians. Any specialist engaged in genuine research, not propaganda, will confirm this,” Geghamyan said, adding that these findings demonstrate that the policy of unilateral concessions by authorities yields no results and, in fact, worsens the situation.
He noted with regret that the current situation in Armenia mirrors the circumstances in Armenian society on the eve of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. At that time, there were also politicians and intellectuals among Armenians who believed that concessions to Turkish leadership could lead to peaceful coexistence and security for Armenians. However, history shows that the reality was entirely different.
“In general, tying the possibility of peace to the signing of any document is naive and absurd. But even if we imagine that a document could establish peace, it must be understood that such agreements with Turkey do not work. Turkey had signed cooperation agreements with Greece, Syria, Iraq, and Cyprus. Everyone remembers the ‘political romance’ between Erdoğan and Assad, and how enthusiastic Syrians, waving their passports, crossed the land border into Turkey, celebrating the visa-free regime. A year and five months later, that same territory they traveled through to reach the border came under Turkey’s control,” Geghamyan recalled.