Paul Goble
Staunton, Sept. 15 – Yerevan has now dropped a drawing of Mount Ararat from the stamps it puts in the passports of those crossing Armenia’s national borders. The picture of that mountain which lies within the borders of Turkey was first put on those stamps two decades ago. That offended many Turks and its removal will please them, although infuriate many Armenians.
Yerevan has taken this step as its relations with Ankara have warmed and at a time when Azerbaijan has demanded that it amend the Armenian constitution by dropping all references to Armenian interest in lands linked to Armenia in the past but now on the territories of other countries (echofm.online/news/armeniya-uberet-izobrazhenie-gory-ararat-s-pogranichnyh-shtampov).
Mount Ararat is an important symbol for Armenians, and it remains on the state coat of arms. But its removal from the passport stamps, an action taken without fanfare, will undoubtedly help Yerevan develop better relations not only with Turkey but also with Azerbaijan.
This action brings to mind an earlier discussion of Armenia’s interest in Mount Ararat as a symbol. When Soviet officials first met with Turkish ones after 1917, the Turkish side complained that Moscow was allowing Armenia to use Mount Ararat as a national symbol even though it was at that time too on the territory of a foreign state.
The Soviet delegates responded by saying in what has become an anecdote with the additional virtue of being true that Turkey had no place to complain because after all, the Turkish national flag featured the moon, a place hardly within the borders at any time of a Turkish national state.
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