A YEAR OF INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS IN THE DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICIES
Hasmik Dilanyan

"Radiolur"
08.12.2009 18:05

The year 2009 is coming to an end, and as usual, the political forces
and government bodies are summing up the passing year. Member of the
Republican faction, member of the Council of the Republican Party
of Armenia, Artak Zakaryan today spoke about the achievements and
omissions of the domestic and foreign policies in the past year.

Artak Zakaryan pointed to several outstanding events, which are
important for the political and public life of our country. First
of all, he emphasized the initiative of the President of our country
targeted at the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations.

According to the MP, another remarkable event in the life of our
country was President Sargsyan’s pan-Armenian trip, "which brought
the issues discussed to a pan-Armenian level and resulted in the
signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols in Zurich on October 10."

According to Artak Zakaryan, the protocols are just the start of
the process reinforced by steps in the direction of establishment of
diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Speaking about the "reasonable framework" for the ratification of
the protocols, the MP said "the sooner they are ratified, the better."

The MP assessed the passing year as successful as regard the settlement
of the Karabakh issue. "An important achievement was the statement
of the Council of Ministers of the OSCE member states, which once
again stressed the importance of peaceful resolution of the issue
on the basis of the principles of non-use of force and the right of
peoples to self-determination," he said.

In the field of foreign policy it was important that Armenia was
included in the Eastern Partnership Program of the European Union.

Among the interesting domestic developments the MP pointed to the
withdrawal of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun from the political coalition.

However, the coalition government continues functioning.