SHAVARSH KOCHARYAN: THE ARMENIAN DELEGATION PREVENTED TURKEY’S STEP INADMISSIBLE FOR ARMENIA

ARMENPRESS
OCTOBER 13, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 13, ARMENPRESS: The signing of Armenian-Turkish
protocols in Zurich, according to the agreement, must have been
followed by oral statements and among the first speakers must have
been the foreign ministers and as far as according to the alphabetic
order first comes Armenia, first Edward Nalbandyan and then Ahmed
Davudoghlu were to deliver speeches, and then the other participants
of the ceremony.

Armenian deputy foreign minister Shavarsh Kocharyan clarified that an
agreement has been reached that the parties pass to each other the
texts of the oral statements. "As a result we were ready and we had
the text. We were assured that the Turkish side, which by the way was
postponing, has already prepared the text, and if we sent our text we
would get theirs. But the Turkish side, before the beginning of the
ceremony did not present the text which aroused serious doubts. This
was the reason why the Armenian delegation did not visit the university
where the signing ceremony must have taken place and demanded that
text be provided," the deputy foreign minister said.

It was obvious that there were inadmissible points in the text for the
Armenian side. "All that Turkey did not mange during long negotiations
include in protocols, and these are known points, it made an attempt to
include them in the oral speech and tie them with protocols: to somehow
put under doubt the fact of Armenian Genocide, directly or indirectly
create ties with Karabakh conflict," Shavarsh Kocharyan said.

The arrangement has been violated and according to the deputy minister
an attempt was being made to comment the protocols in a peculiar
way. But with the objections of the Armenian side and efforts of
mediators as a result of long-lasting negotiations the Turkish
side could not voice the text. The negotiations lasted for three
hours. Shavarsh Kocharyan said the Armenian delegation prevented
Turkey’s step inadmissible for Armenia.

ssues that Sergey Lavrov wrote a message to Edward Nalbandyan calling
on him to agree to sign the protocols without making statements.

"Russia had quite weighty contribution during the whole process and
on that same day too but no message was written," he said.

Speaking about the postponement of protocols, Shavarsh Kocharyan said
"What did these three hours showed? The world clearly saw that we
will never stand back in the issue of values making our collective
identity. Even a statement that must have been made, we considered
inadmissible and reached that it would not be voiced. It means that
in the issues of Genocide and Karabakh conflict the Armenian side
was and remains resolute.

As to the time of ratification of the protocols by parliament, the
deputy foreign minister said "This is the case when time cannot be
established for parliaments to ratify the protocols. But there exists
reasonable timeframe definition and it is not accidental that all the
states were speaking that it must be done as soon as possible. The
whole international community is waiting for speedy and reasonable
timeframe. And if there will be unreasonable delays we know our
response, as the Armenian president has earlier stated."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress