AN ACHIEVEMENT OF ARMENIAN DIPLOMACY
Shakeh Avoyan

"Radiolur"
01.09.2009 18:18

This is an achievement of our diplomacy, Turkologist Ruben Safrastyan
said, commenting on the agreement between Armenia and Turkey to start
internal political consultations on the two protocols – the "Protocol
on the establishment of diplomatic relations" and the "Protocol on
the development of bilateral relations." However, he refrains from
calling it victory, because there can be no victories in diplomacy,
there are agreements that can be profitable or not for us.

According to the Director of the Oriental Studies Institute, the
documents are of great importance to Armenia. Why are they positive
and why are they important? Ruben Safrastyan emphasized two main
points. "First, the most important achievement is that the Turkish
diplomacy actually refused from its longstanding policy of linking
the normalization of relations to the Karabakh issue. The documents
make no reference to the Karabakh issue. The second important issue
is that they includes no reference to preventing Armenia’s efforts
targeted at the recognition of the Armenian Genocide."

"Our diplomacy should keep to this style. In that case we’ll manage
to develop our relations with Turkey without preconditions," Ruben
Safrastyan said.