P.S. Retro: Political and military leaders must convince people to come up with a compromise solution (video)
Jirair Liparityan, a former adviser to Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, could not understand his status at the first Pan-Armenian conference that was held in September 1999. Though he did not attend the conference, Mr. Liparityan followed its work to the last moment. Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s adviser could not believe that the conference could prove effective for the relations between Armenia and the Diaspora. He said the Diaspora had no mechanisms to survive as such, there was no union. Mr. Liparityan said that the administration led by [second President] Robert Kocharyan thought if they brought the issue of the Genocide recognition to the foreground of the foreign policy agenda, the Diaspora would have to spend a lot of money on it. The historian was one of the six people mentioned by the first president who was well aware of the talks over Karabakh. He had no idea of the negotiations held during Kocharyan’s presidency. Jirair Liparityan said the status of Nagorno Karabakh was to be put in the limelight of the talks. He believed that would become more painful and difficult ‘to leave the occupied territories over time: until that moment part of those territories were security guarantees, but they slowly posing a threat. Mr. Liparityan political and military leaders must convince people to work together to come up with a compromise solution whereas there were more military representatives in power than politicians in the autumn of 2000. Jirair Liparityan did not know what the Kocharyan administration meant by saying foreign policy. For him, foreign policy meant having zero problems with neighbors.
