ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN PROMISES RESTLESS JANUARY TO AUTHORITIES
Mikhail Balayan

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
19.12.2009 GMT+04:00

Major events of the past week were the visit of the NKR parliamentary
delegation to Armenia, the arrival of Turkish journalists and the
inner-party conflicts in the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party
of Armenia. As usual several sharp statements were made by ARF
Dashnaktsutyun. A number of political scientists assessed the current
state of Armenian-Turkish relations. There was also the anticipated
reaction from the Republican Party of Armenia in relation to its party
members – the RA National Assembly MPs, who had spoken in support of
Sasun Mikaelyan.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On Monday at a press conference on ratification
of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols, Head of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
parliamentary faction Vahan Hovhannisyan promised a restless January
to the authorities. He informed that before and after the decision of
the Constitutional Court on the conformity of the Protocols to the
RA Constitution, the ARF was planning to launch a series of protest
actions against the Turkish-Armenian Protocols. According to him, the
failure of ratification of the Protocols in Armenia is quite possible,
as majority of Armenians share the view of the ARF on existing
preconditions in the Protocols. Vahan Hovhannisyan also declared ARF
would not return to the coalition government, even if the President
of Armenia introduced amendments in the foreign policy of the country
and refused ratification of the Protocols. Honhannisyan motivated this
decision by the fact that creation of a coalition government does not
make sense until the authorities change the principles of their work.

At a joint press conference with a member of the Republican Party
Gagik Minasyan, another representative of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, MP
Artsvik Minasyan stated that Armenia should do its best to withdraw
from the current format of normalizing ties with Turkey. He also
criticized the country’s budget for 2010 proposed by the government,
which was voted for by majority of the coalition government. Artsvik
Minasyan believes that the government does not have a healthy program
to stabilize the economy of Armenia, and its members "must hand in
their portfolios to those who can lead the country out of crisis."

The danger of the simultaneous step-up of two processes – the
Armenian-Turkish relations and the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
regulation – was discussed by Chairman of the "European Integration"
NGO Karen Bekaryan, who noted that the Armenian society should be
given time to "digest" these processes at a time. Bekaryan predicts
certain progress in the Turkish Meclisi in January-February 2010, and
believes that the Armenian-Turkish Protocols will already be ratified
in March-April. In addition, the expert points out that in case the
process of ratifying the Protocols is delayed, international community
will deliver a counter-blow to Ankara. He also states that so far no
document requiring concessions from the Armenian side has been signed.

"The mediators on conflict regulation do not even speak of an early
signing of the agreement," Bekaryan said, still predicting acceleration
in the negotiation process.

Other possible date for ratification of the Protocols was given on the
following day by Head of the Analytical Center on Globalization and
Regional Cooperation Stepan Grigoryan, who believes that the Protocols
will be ratified earlier, in December-January. He reiterates that
Armenia should be the first to ratify the protocols, thus shifting the
responsibility for the further normalization of relations on Turkey.

According to Grigoryan, in this way Armenia can avoid future pressure
from the superpowers, which will concentrate all their pressure
on Ankara.

Later dates for ratification of the Protocols were forecasted by
political scientist Armen Agayan. "I believe that ratification may take
place on the eve of April 24 (the Day of Remembrance of the Armenian
Genocide). If it does not happen then, ratification of the Protocols
may be delayed for 2-3 years," stated Aghayan at a press conference,
not excluding the possibility that the Protocols may be ratified as
soon as the framework agreement on Karabakh is signed.

Another event that drew attention of the Armenian society in the
middle of the week was the special congress of the Social Democrat
Hunchakian Party of Armenia. Leader of the Party Lyudmila Sargsyan
called the requirement of convening a special congress with the wording
"a vote of no confidence" a violation of the Party Charter.

She also called the convened congress an attempt to split the party
from within. However, the subsequent events showed that the party did
not split up. The congress decided to exclude Lyudmila Sargsyan from
the party, elected a new board and a new chairman, receiving further
recognition from the All Hunchak Board of Directors. The party also
retained its relationship with the Armenian National Congress (ANC).

On the other hand, Leader of the Marxist Party of Armenia, David
Hakobyan announced Tuesday his party’s decision of seceding from the
Armenian National Congress. According to Hakobyan, the reason for the
party’s quitting the ANC is that "The bloc failed to become a leader of
public opposition and a generator of neo-liberal democratic ideology
for the society. This opposition alliance was unable to provide the
Armenian society with a new national vision, a new doctrine of foreign
and domestic policy."

On Thursday, the Republican Party of Armenia in the person of Head of
the parliamentary faction of RPA Mr. Galust Sahakyan made it clear that
the party was not pleased with the actions of its MPs, who earlier
in the week had undersigned the letter issued to the President of
Armenia, requesting amnesty for Sasun Mikaelyan; moreover, the party
condemned their action. Touching upon the Armenian-Turkish relations,
Galust Sahakyan said: "Turkey cannot be our partner either today or
tomorrow. It is impossible until she recognizes the Armenian Genocide."

Two other events that began early in the week and lasted till the
very end of the week were the visit of the parliamentary delegation
of Nagorno-Karabakh to Yerevan and the visit of Turkish journalists
representing the best-known Turkish media to the Armenian capital.

The parliamentary delegation from the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, led
by Speaker of the NKR National Assembly Ashot Ghulyan was received
by President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who declared at the meeting
that the negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could
succeed only in case of direct participation of NKR. Next, the NKR
delegation took part in the 7th inter-parliamentary collaboration
sitting RA NA – NKR NA. Two major issues – "The Demographic situation
in Armenia and NKR" and "International organizations’ perception of the
Karabakh conflict" – were included in the agenda. Opening the meeting,
NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan stressed, priority should be given to
developing cooperation in the economic sphere. For his part, Chairman
of the NKR National Assembly Ashot Ghulyan expressed hope that the
parties would engage in constructive negotiations, and would present
a comprehensive package of proposals as the result of the sitting.

On Thursday a press conference of Turkish journalists was held in
Yerevan in which the journalists responded to many topical issues of
concern for the Armenian public. The main issues were ratification
of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols, the Karabakh conflict settlement,
and recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey. Journalist of the
Turkish newspaper "Milliyet" Kadri Gursel noted that Azerbaijan’s
pressure on Turkey was much stronger than peer pressure within the
country. At the same time, Gursel noted that Ankara had never before
been so determined about normalizing ties with Armenia. According
to him, this is due to the desire of Turkey to improve relations
with neighboring countries rather than to the pressure exerted on
Turkey from outside. According to another Turkish journalist, "Sabah"
newspaper foreign policy correspondent Bilge Eser, today the Turkish
society is ready for a dialogue with the Armenian society.

At the end of the week Turin University Professor Luca Guiduzzi
introduced the results of his studies on the Nagorno Karabakh, during
a round table discussion hosted Friday by Armenian Center for National
and International Studies (ACNIS). Based on his personal meetings and
conversations, Luca Guiduzzi concluded that the residents of Nagorno
Karabakh continue to believe they are "still at war and ready to
fight for their freedom."