OPPOSITION PARTY CALLS FOR REFERENDUM ON ARMENIAN-TURKISH PROTOCOLS
Mediamax
Sept 3 2009
Armenia
Yerevan, 3 September: The opposition Heritage party demands that the
initialled Armenian-Turkish protocols on establishing and developing
bilateral relations be submitted to a national referendum.
Mediamax reports that the head of the Heritage parliamentary faction,
Armen Martirosyan, stated today that the referendum should be held
before presenting the protocols to ratification by the Armenian
parliament. He noted that this referendum, per se, will define the
confidence of society in the Armenian president, who is in charge of
the foreign policy of the country.
The MP said that after the beginning of the autumn session, Heritage
will start collection of signatures by MPs for holding a referendum,
and if necessary, it will also turn to the government concerning
this issue.
Armen Martirosyan stated that initialled documents contain, at least,
three preconditions unacceptable for Armenia. According to him,
if there are no changes made in the protocols, "state and national
interests of the country and the Armenian people will be seriously
endangered".
The Heritage party also intends to turn to the Constitutional Court
of Armenia with the suggestion to check the compliance of protocol
provisions with the constitution of the country.
The MP expressed opinion that the Armenian authorities are not
interested in realizing large-scale public discussions as to the
issue of normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations. According to him,
these discussions should have preceded the initialling of protocols.