Recently Mexico has become a focal point of concern for Armenia. The Armenian Foreign Minister has gone to Mexico in haste on October 23’rd, Armenia has appointed an Ambassador to Mexico for the first time and has decided to open an Embassy there. These initiatives of Armenia reflect the misgivings of the dilemma which it has to confront and its reaction to claims presented in a manner matching its own reasoning.

With a resolution adopted in December 2011, the Mexican Senate has recognized as genocide the inhuman acts by Armenian forces committed in February 1992 at Khojaly and has reprimanded Armenia. It is no surprise for Mexico, whose history is full of indefinable pains, to empathize with Khojaly and the sensitivity the Senate has thus shown is worthy of praise.

On the other hand, the diplomatic corps was informed by the municipality of the capital that in the city center of Mexico, a walking distance away from the presidential palace, a green area of four parcels of land would be developed. Azerbaijan, which applied for one of these parcels, has made the formal opening of a park in the spring of 2012 in which a fountain of dancing waters and a monument of a woman with arms extended to the sky in mourning takes place. At the shield on the monument is engraved the words: “in commemoration of the victims of the Khojaly genocide”. (One of the parcels of green area has been promised to Turkey. It is expected that the municipality of sister city Istanbul will prepare a project) Apart from this, during the same period, a monument of Haydar Aliev has also been erected at the most fashionable boulevard of the city.

Although the Armenian criticisms appear to be directed against Aliev’s monument, the target is the monument of Khojaly genocide and the senate’s resolution that genocide has been committed in Khojaly which the Armenians refuse to accept. In fact, during talks held in Mexico, the Armenian Foreign Minister is reported to have said that the events of 1992-1994 are controversial and to have underlined that the senate’s decision violates international norms and harms bilateral relations. The Armenian press has also harped that the events of 1915 and 1992 cannot be equated and has crossfired that it is not possible to talk of genocide in Khojaly.

According to Turkey, which defines the concept of genocide within the framework of law and international court decisions, a crime against humanity has been committed in Khojaly and a massacre has taken place. However, for those who define the concept of genocide flexibly, politically and arbitrarily, Khojaly constitutes a litmus test. It will be appropriate from now on for Turkey to also observe and record the stance of countries which adopt genocide resolutions in their parliaments and allow the erection of Armenian monuments in their city squares will take from now on towards Khojaly. Azerbaijan’s Mexico Embassy should be congratulated for providing the opportunity to display to the world public how Armenia distorts the concepts and how unsupported its allegations are when Armenia is the target.