Armenians should find common language with Azerbaijanis, film director says

Armenian film director Ruben Babayan has called on Armenians to find a common language with Azerbaijanis.

He made the remarks in an interview with Armenian media, commenting on the Azerbaijani-Armenian meetings, Caliber.Az reports.

"We cannot remain enemies with neighbouring countries forever, so dialogue is one of the important points to overcome this enmity. It is necessary to do everything possible to hold a second meeting. Being constantly in a state of enmity, we see that Armenia has no future," Babayan said.

"The losses and tragedies are still very painful, but I believe that intellectuals exist to look forward and try to do their best for the development of countries and people. We cannot give up, otherwise, we will force our people to live outside their own country, which means assimilation with other nations.

Critics of such meetings must understand and clarify whether they love their country or are simply fixated on its territory, whether they seek to learn from the past or not, whether they respect the history of their people or are only proud of their suffering. Otherwise, we will always be haunted by our own death.

We should not be afraid of being targeted, and if I were that kind of person, I would not go out in public or participate in anything at all. There are things that need to be done, and that includes expressing your honest viewpoint. Our intolerance stems from within and harms our own society, not our opponent. It is ineffective and will lead to nothing good. We are not listening to each other. If you are concerned about the future of the country, make a step for its development. Only Armenia and Azerbaijan should work together in this direction.

If there is a desire, there will be a meeting. However, the Russian Federation is asking questions that are not so important to us. At the first meeting, they did not aim to achieve peace or to continue the dialogue but focused on how we all feel about the restoration of the Soviet Union, about the revival of imperial Russia. Because of this position of the Russian Federation, it cannot enter into negotiations between the two peoples. Regardless of the complexity of the situation, it is important to try to understand the logic of other people and call for dialogue," the film director said.