Today we live in a society, which can not imagine life without expressing views on social media. Probably it does have certain advantages. Nevertheless, many participants of active discussions have already forgotten or do not even know about the developments, which unfolded in Armenia 5, 10 or 15 years ago.   

To fill the gap Mediamax presents 5/10/15 project, which introduce developments in Armenia 5, 10 and 15 years ago. 

• 15 YEARS AGO: JULY 15-21, 2004 

Erdogan in Paris 

On 21 July Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated in Paris that normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations was impossible unless Armenia abandoned the policy of pushing for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. 

During the visit to France he noted that “the Armenian Diaspora has been trying to keep the so-called Armenian genocide high on agenda”. 

“In fact, it is not beneficial for Armenia at all. The bilateral relations between Turkey and Armenia cannot be improved as long as such policies continue. If they put an end to their campaign of defamation against Turkey, border gates between Turkey and Armenia may be opened,” said Erdogan.

• 10 YEARS AGO: JULY 15-21,2009 ГОДА

The plane crash

On 15 July 2009, a Tu-154 plane of the Iranian Caspian Airlines crashed during the flight from Tehran to Yerevan. 

The list of Tehran-Yerevan flight passengers at the Zvartnots airport

Photo: Photolure

The plane was carrying 168 people in total, passengers and crew members. 

36 people were of Armenian descent, and 6 of them held Armenian citizenship.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree declaring July 16th the day of national mourning.

Photo: Photolure

“The matter of refugees may be discussed in a wider context”

On 16 July Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian stated that Yerevan “will never agree to a solution of the problem, which is not approved by the people and the leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh”. 

After the meeting with President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Bako Sahakyan, Nalbandian admitted that “naturally, Nagorno-Karabakh may have different approaches to certain issues, but the stance of NKR is very significant and important for us”. 

Edward Nalbandian also stressed that “Armenia considers full participation of Nagorno-Karabakh in the negotiation process a necessity and a guarantee for the negotiation process efficiency”. 

According to him, the parties to the conflict did not discuss the return of Azerbaijani refugees to Nagorno-Karabakh in the framework of the negotiation process. “This issue may be considered only after the final settlement of the conflict, in a wider context, given the factor of 400,000 Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan,” said Nalbandian.

“The status is the main issue” 

On 20 July Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated that the main issue in the peace talks was the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, which ought to be defined by means of free expression of will.

At the meeting with the Delegation of European Union (EU) Troika, headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Carl Bildt, Serzh Sargsyan stressed that he and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev discussed the issue during their talks in Moscow on July 17. According to Sargsyan, that stage of negotiations proceeded in somewhat different conditions, as OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs had informed the society on the principles of talks beforehand. Armenian President described it as certain assistance to the talks since “the sides, unfortunately, have not always informed the public about the issues the talks focused on”. 

Serzh Sargsyan and Carl Bildt

Photo: Photolure

“Despite that fact, Azerbaijan is trying to present the agenda and the essence of talks in a different way. Nevertheless, I can say that although with difficulty, there is progress. Now we are discussing the basic principles, singled out from Madrid Principles”, after which we should discuss the remaining principles and start elaborating the basic agreement,” he said. 

Sargsyan noted that “it should already be clear for all that the main issue is the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, which should be defined by the means of free expression of will and should have obligatory legal effect”.

“After we give a clear-cut wording to this task, which will not cause any discrepancies, I believe that the negotiations will continue far more smoothly,” he added.

Ara Tadevosyan