Recently, Armenia's mediahub.am has published an interview with an old Armenian woman. The interview question was: Is it possible for us to be friends with the Turks? In response, the woman who was the guest of the program stated that it is not possible to be friends with the Turks, who committed so many genocides against the Armenians, and that the enemy will remain the enemy. Adding that she remembers what her father-in-law went through when she was thirteen, the woman said: "My father-in-law used to say: "The Turks were coming, they draw crosses on the doors and walls of Armenian houses every night, so they can find the houses where Armenian families live more easily the next day. On one of these nights, they came again and, so to speak, wrapped my father-in-law in the carpet. After staying like that for a long time, serious problems occurred in his back and spine. How can we make peace with the Turks when there is such a problem, and everything will go back to the way it was? Do you think it's possible?!"

The old woman then told the audience what her mother-in-law had told them. As always, the old woman “makes an effort to create an image of her pathetic Armenian mother” and states that her mother-in-law had to emigrate leaving her eight-years old children. In the social media accounts where the program is broadcast, Armenians defend the woman and argue with swearing and insults that it is impossible to live in peace and tranquility with the Turks. (source)

Faktyoxla Lab. has investigated whether the idea that Armenians undermine the normalization process with Turkiye with such programs, articles and statements is true.

We do not think we need to specify that the so-called Armenian genocide is a slander (source) that has no connection with reality, as stated by Fahrettin Altun, the Communications Director of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkiye. The normalization process, which first started between Turkiye and Armenia in 2009, was interrupted only by the fact that the whole process of rapprochement of Armenians, especially with the influence of the diaspora, was brought to the Constitutional Court. Whenever there is a rapprochement with Turkiye, Diaspora immediately puts its influence in Armenia into action and this naturally puts the Armenian government in a very troubled position.

The fact that the second phase of this process became more active after the second Karabakh War, which took place in November 2020 and ended with the recovery of most of the Armenian-occupied territories of Azerbaijan, gives hope to the region in terms of the normalization of Turkiye-Armenia relations. Distorting the situation, political scientists constantly claim that “Turkiye is not ready for a real normalization, that the process of ‘normalization of relations’ in Turkish means the destruction of the Armenian political factor.”

In addition, the Armenian side, especially the opponents, say that Turkiye continues to use the normalization process of relations with Armenia to meet its own and Azerbaijani demands.

At all stages of the process, right after the decisions taken, people supported by the opposition and diaspora in Armenia opposed normalization. For example, in 2022, a group of people held a protest near the Yerevan "Zvartnots" airport and opposed the opening of Yerevan-Istanbul flights. “Are you going to the house of those who shed our blood? To the house of those who killed my brothers? They want to murder us and are you going to a Turk's house?" – although the Armenian media wanted to hide the identity of the protesters shouting and the political motives of the event, it is very obvious that these people belong to the radical wing of the "Dashnaksutyun" Armenian fascist movement, which opposes the normalization process with Turkiye. (source)

Apart from this, one of the Armenian opponents, David Shahnazaryan, stated that establishing diplomatic relations with Turkiye and opening the borders is a great threat to Armenia, while security expert Hrachya Arzumanyan went further and said, “If you have the opportunity to ignore the opinions of the mediators and look into the eyes of your enemy, then this is the case. You need to take the next step.”

In fact, this shows that Armenians were never ready for a normalization process with Turkiye. Historian Gerard Jirair Libaridian, who is an advisor to the former President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan, expressed this issue in a panel where he was a speaker at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF) in June 2021, and afterwards, and stated that the parties in Armenia's domestic politics are involved in Armenia's presence in the region. He pointed out that they did not fully understand and therefore could not contribute enough to the efforts to rectify the situation. Stating that Turkiye is ready for the normalization process, but Armenia is biased, Libaridian added that the propaganda activities against the process continue without slowing down, even before the negotiations begin.

Instead of saying "we cannot be friends with the Turks", "they killed us”, the most reasonable way is to develop regional peace and cooperation initiatives with the proposal of the Joint History Commission, which Turkiye has repeatedly stated, but the Armenians always stay away from this. They are erecting monuments to the heroes of Operation Nemesis, and on top of that, Iran expert Vardan Voskanyan states, “The Turkish regime is well aware of the symbolism of the Nemesis monument.” – (source)

In conclusion

-The interview prepared by mediahub.am was made to undermine the normalization process;

- Although Armenia says that it is ready for the normalization process, it shows that it does not make any effort to develop this process with the steps it has taken;

- Armenians who want to exist in the region should leave aside what someone told them years ago and start looking for ways to live in peace and tranquility.