YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. In an interview with “Armenpress” director of Oriental Institute of Armenian NAS Ruben Safrastyan says Turkish Parliament’s Armenian MP Garo Paylan's safety is on danger.

-Mr. Safrastyan, these days Armenian MP Garo Paylan is distinguished by its activity in Turkish Parliament. Do you see any safety issue related with him?

-Yer, I see a safety issue. I remembered an expression of Hrant Dink related with Garo Paylan’s incident. When I met him in one of the scientific conferences in the US, he said the following: “It’s very difficult to be an Armenian in Turkey, but it is much more difficult to be an Armenian politician there”. We should not forget that Hrank Dink was active not only on the issue of the Armenian question, but also in the leftist movement of Turkey. Now we see that the same is being formed around Garo, which creates concerns.

-According to you, what can contribute to the safety of Armenian politicians in Turkey, maybe the existence of Armenian community in Istanbul? What do you see as the way for it?

-I can say the following that Turkish political and social circles that express views different from Turkish authorities, are in danger. We have numerous examples, for instance, pressure is being put against political opponents, media representatives. This is themodern reality of Turkey. I think the international opinion can have a great role in changing the situation in a better way, in this case putting a pressure on Turkey. However, I doubt that Turkey will be affected by that pressures, but there is no other way. Concerning the Armenian community, it does not have such power to defend its representative.

-You talked about the pressures on Turkey, however, we have seen a few days ago that the European Commission gave a green light to Turkey in terms of visas.

-Yer, it was a political contract between Europe and Turkey on migrants’ issue. And this was strictly condemned by the prominent European political and social circles. The proposal of migrant contract was made by Davutoglu. As a result Turkey receives billions. The majority of Germans has a negative attitude towards that contract of Europe. We see that European leaders do not take into account the public opinion and go to a deal with Turkey. It is dangerous for Europe. We see how Turkey supports the Islamic extremists, uses refugees as a mean of pressure on Europe. One thing I want to stress that till now Turkey has succeed in many ways, it wasn’t punished for supporting “Islamic State” terrorist group, but rather, it still continues to keep open the border with Syria using weapons, ammunition,  and transporting fighters.

-Can we say that Europe’s same policy of double standards is seen in the case of Azerbaijan? In fact, Azerbaijani soldiers behead Armenian soldiers, while at the same time Baku holds forum of UN Alliance of Civilizations, European leaders praise Baku.

-Yes, unfortunately, Europe applies its double standards policy and betrays its statements taking into account its short-term interests or simply receiving bribery. Strategic interest of Europe is to spread European values in various states, including Azerbaijan. However, they close their eyes on decapitation of Armenian soldiers, it’s a disgrace.