TURKEY’S PARLIAMENT IS USED TO SUSPENDING RATIFICATION PROCESS, EXPERT SAYS

Panorama.am
17:25 15/01/2010

Turkey possesses political mechanisms which allow it to suspend the
ratification of interstate documents for years, the Deputy Dean of the
Faculty of Oriental Studies, Yerevan State University Ruben Melkonyan
told a press conference today.

Panorama.am recalls that Turkish government submitted the
Armenian-Turkish protocols into the parliament (mejlis) as a draft
in October.

"Turkey’s government adopted the protocols and a letter signed by the
PM was addressed to the parliament, stating to put the ratification
into vote. The Foreign Affairs Committee was due to discuss the issue
within a term of 45 days," the expert highlighted.

R. Melkonyan said, the term expired long ago, though, no response
has been received from the committee yet.

"Following the recent parliamentary elections, as the committees were
formed, the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Committee still included
documents dating back as far as 1950-60ies, not been discussed so far,"
R. Melkonyan explained.

The expert recalled Turkish-Syrian protocols which the mejlis ratified
only 3 years later after signing.

"This is a record short term in the history of document ratification
by Turkey’s parliament," he underscored.

R. Melkonyan didn’t exclude that Turkey will apply different legal
mechanisms to ratify the protocols as late as possible.