Yegoyan's Stern Message: You Are Not Cautious in Relations with Turkey

I am convinced that no person from Khoy would say to the Iranian ambassador, ‘Khoy is my homeland,’ and no person from Javakhk would say to the Georgian ambassador, ‘Javakhk is my homeland.’ You all should be very, very delicate and careful, and we too, by the way. But in relations with Turkey, you are not careful—Mush, Ardahan, Kars, Adana, whatever the conversation cuts off, it can go.

This was stated by Arman Yegoyan, a member of the ‘Civil Contract’ faction, at a session of the National Assembly.

‘What is the reason for this? The reason is the following: from Russia’s perspective, Armenia’s stipulated role in the South Caucasus does not involve creating problems with Iran and Georgia. From Russia’s viewpoint in the architecture of the South Caucasus that it envisions, we should not have problems with Iran and Georgia. For that reason, you will not say anything because that is not part of that architecture. As for Turkey, please say whatever you want, then they will come and reconcile or not, they will call, we can be mediators, we can bring maps, specialists, and so on.

‘But in relations with Iran, there is no need for a guarantor, because they have other relations there, whereas with Turkey, we have different relations,’ said Arman Yegoyan, a member of the ‘Civil Contract’ faction.

It should be noted that Arman Yegoyan faced criticism from the opposition when, during one of his speeches, he commented on the ownership of historical Armenian territories located in modern-day Turkey and stated, ‘When a Georgian MP comes and says, “Tashir is my homeland,” because it was part of the Georgian kingdom in a certain year, what will you say? No, Lori is Armenian because it is within the Republic of Armenia. Do you think you can go to the Turks and say, “Adana is our homeland”? Even if they don't protest, what will they think? Do you think we are the only ones with historical states, and that other nations haven’t had historical states?’