ARMENIAN OPPOSITION CONDEMNS SIGNING OF TURKEY DEAL
Irina Hovannisian

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12.10.2009

Armenia’s leading opposition forces reacted angrily on Monday to the
signing of far-reaching Turkish-Armenian protocols, again branding
them as a sellout.

The most vocal critic of the deal, the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), said it will fight against the protocols’
ratification by parliament "by all possible means" and again threatened
to campaign for President Serzh Sarkisian’s resignation.

"The Armenian Revolutionary Federation is determined to fight for
the scuttling of the protocols," the nationalist party said in a
statement. "To that end, Dashnaktsutyun will resort to all political
and constitutional means, including regime change."

The statement reiterated the party’s main arguments against
the agreements, including a claim that they could thwart broader
international recognition of the Armenian genocide. It said Sarkisian
himself shared opposition concerns about rapprochement with Turkey
in his latest public pronouncements on the subject.

Giro Manoyan, a senior party representative, told journalists that a
Dashnaktsutyun-led coalition of a dozen opposition parties will stage
another demonstration against Sarkisian’s policy on Friday. One of
those parties, Zharangutyun, was also quick to condemn the high-profile
signing of the two agreements welcomed around the world.

Zharangutyun’s U.S.-born top leader, Raffi Hovannisian, described it as
"the latest entry in the ledger of crimes committed, and covered up,
against the Armenian nation."

"As a servant of the Armenian nation … I am appalled by this
latest offense," Hovannisian said in an "open letter to the Armenian
nation." "As an Armenian citizen … I ache as the soul of our nation
is traded away for illusory promises of ‘good will’ and ‘open borders’
with Turkey."

Like Dashnaktsutyun, Hovannisian condemned Yerevan for pledging
to formally recognize Armenia’s existing border with Turkey and
agreeing to the formation of a joint panel that would look into the
1915 extermination and deportation of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian
population. That, he said, "not only challenges the untouchable
veracity of the Genocide, but secures the complicity of the Armenian
state in absolving Turkey of any responsibility for its genocidal
actions."

The charge was echoed by a leading member of the Armenian National
Congress (HAK), the country’s largest opposition alliance that has more
moderate views on Turkey than Dashnaktsutyun and Zharangutyun. Levon
Zurabian accused Sarkisian of "forfeiting the genocide" to gain strong
international support for his rule challenged at home. "Armenia is
not getting an open border even at the expense of renouncing genocide
recognition," he told RFE/RL, pointing to Ankara’s renewed linkage
between Turkish-Armenian relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
resolution.

Zurabian said the HAK will officially react to the development
later this week. The opposition bloc led by former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian stopped short of rejecting the Turkish-Armenian protocols
as a whole in a statement issued last month.

Also condemning the Zurich accords was Armenia’s longtime former
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian. "It is difficult to imagine a more
demeaning signing or a more demeaning document," read a statement
issued by Oskanian’s Civilitas Foundation think-tank. "The parties
themselves and the representatives of the world powers, all were
present but all remained silent."

"When such a `historic’ moment goes by with none of the sides or
the witnesses able to say anything acceptable or in agreement with
the rest … it is difficult to see how this document can provide the
serious basis of trust and respect necessary for stable and respectful
relations between the parties," the statement said, scoffing at a
compromise arrangement that salvaged the Turkish-Armenian deal.

By contrast, the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) described
the protocol signing as an "achievement." Galust Sahakian, the leader
of the HHK’s faction in parliament, also downplayed Turkey’s possible
refusal to ratify the protocols and open the border with Armenia
before a Karabakh settlement.

"Of course, we would certainly not gain from that," Sahakian told a
news conference. "But we wouldn’t lose anything either. In any case,
it is Turkey that would be in a difficult situation." The Armenian
side will "stop the negotiating process" if the Turks drag their feet
over the protocol ratification, he said.

Zurabian insisted, however, that Turkey will manage to keep more
countries from recognizing the Armenian massacres as genocide even
if it declines to implement the agreements.