http://en.mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2006/09/21/echo-armenians-dislike-azerbaijanis-and-turks-most-of-all en-us 40 At the Same Time Insisting on Opening Frontiers with Turkey 21.09.2006 Gallup poll (personal interview, 2000 respondents) was held in Armenia in spring 2006 by request of one of the governmental institutions of the USA (no name is mentioned). As poll materials gathered by “Regnum” informs, US government got following answers to the questions: - The attitude of Armenian population towards Russia (good – 79,6%), towards USA (good – 49,0%), towards Turkey (not good – 80,1%), towards Georgia (not good – 54,7%), towards Azerbaijan (not good – 86,5%); - The country which can ensure the most effective regulation of Garabagh conflict (Russia – 43,8%, USA – 33,3%, UN – 20,7%, France – 17, 9%); - The most appropriate way for regulation of Garabagh conflict (via international mediation – 41,6%, via compromise – 40,7%, force – 11,5%); - The best way of solving of Garabagh problem (Garabagh should be part of Armenia – 49,5%, Garabagh should be independent – 46,9%); - The necessity of referendum on status of Nagorni Garabagh (yes – 55,2%, no - 21,6%); - Who should be involved with referendum on status of Nagorni Garabagh (only present population of Garabagh – 56,7%, any other people – 15,6%, only refugees from Garabagh – 15,3%, population of Garabagh of 1991- 5,6%, people of Azerbaijan and Armenia together – 5,3%); - The necessity to open Armenian-Turkish frontier (yes – 57,7%, no – 33,3%). Head of Azerbaijani social service “Pulse -R”, Roman Shulman, gave his own opinion concerning answers of Armenian citizens. “Good attitude of Armenians towards Russia is easy to explain as Russia systematically provides Armenia with weapons. And Russia claims for neutral mediation while everyone knows that Putin has got the key of fair regulation of Garabagh problem. It is easy to understand why Armenians’ attitude towards Russian Federation is better in comparison with that of towards USA, as priorities of Azerbaijan are connected with USA. Official visit of President, Ilham Aliyev to Washington, direction of energetic projects, GUAM activities prove it. As for referendum in Nagorni Garabagh, recently we witnessed similar action in Transdnestr, and in this connection Armenian citizens give priority to Armenians living in Nagorni Garabagh only, where actually there is no Azerbaijani. That is, no referendum is needed for this. Now they declare that Armenians of Garabagh voted for independence or for annexation with Armenia. Sociology investigates problems which are in the depth and vague in order to clarify public attitude towards them. But here everything is clear. Problems should be solved only in accordance with accepted decisions of UN. Moreover, role and importance of Azerbaijan is rising at international level. That is why this poll has no interesting nuances”. On the one hand in general Armenians have no good attitude towards Turkey – 80,1%, on the other one, they prefer to open frontiers with this country – 57,7%. There exist contradictory political and economic peculiarities. Independent economist-expert Inglab Ahmadov explained situation for “Echo”. “First of all on the level of society and separate individual, such negative attitude towards Turkey on the part of Armenia is explainable. This feeling has been instilled in every Armenian. And even if they are not sincere, there is something in them that says – I, as Armenian, should answer this way only. In this case they associate themselves with patriots, the part of nation which experienced suffering. It is psychological, social or most likely cultural, historical aspect. As for frontiers issue I suspect that Armenians think about economic aspect, that is, if it will be profitable or not for Armenia. With all their antipathy to Turkey, at the level of government and NGO experts, they always say that it is necessary. And if it depended on them, the frontiers would have been opened. Turkey itself is hesitating but it still adheres the principle of not-opening frontiers with Armenia. In this situation common and social-economic factor plays its role. In this part of answer the matter concerns people who suffer from uncomfortable conditions taking into account deficiency of commodity flow. And it directly concerns family budget”. Leader of Humanistic Party of Azerbaijan, political scientist, Oktay Atakhan, stresses that “in Armenia even poll holding suffers from game of politics. Some given data do not reflect the sentiments of Armenian population, particularly, their trust towards Russia and USA. Most likely it is message for America to show that Armenia prefers Russia. Actually even during Soviet period Armenian had very negative attitude towards Russia and Russians. And I believe that this attitude hasn’t been changed with time. Present poll is a politics designed to frighten USA with increase of Russian impact, and to make USA to invest in Armenia, to support Armenia. It is another game. The so-called Armenian sociologists could make these figures themselves, as they perfectly blend with position of Armenian Government at international level. There is no reflection of any views of internal opposition, it is game of politics”. R. Orujev www.echo-az.com Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:18:00 -0400 urn:uuid:a3e32f47-8dec-4831-a236-dabb983d6450 Mirza Khazar http://en.mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/2006/09/21/echo-armenians-dislike-azerbaijanis-and-turks-most-of-all Karabakh http://en.mirzexezerinsesi.net/articles/trackback/176