ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT RATIFIES LAW ON NULLIFYING INTERNATIONAL TREATIES

Asbarez
ratifies-law-on-nullifying-international-treaties/
Feb 24th, 2010

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-The National Assembly approved Tuesday a government
bill that will make it easier for Armenia to annul its normalization
agreements with Turkey if Ankara continues to delay their ratification.

The relevant amendments to an Armenian law on international treaties
envisage the suspension or termination of agreements signed by Yerevan
before their entry into force.

President Serzh Sarkisian announced his intention to enact such
amendments in December in response to Turkish leaders’ continuing
statements making the ratification of the Turkish-Armenian "protocols"
conditional on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh. He made clear
that Yerevan will walk away from the deal if Ankara fails to implement
it within a "reasonable" time frame.

The parliament overwhelmingly passed the amendments in the first
reading, with only one of its factions, the opposition Zharangutyun
party, voting against them. Zharangutyun lawmakers, who have been
strongly opposed to the protocols, said Armenian law and international
conventions signed by Yerevan already allow for the abrogation of
international treaties.

Deputies from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the other
opposition party represented in the parliament, also criticized the
amendments but chose to vote for them. "It contains necessary but
insufficient formulations," one of them, Artsvik Minasian, said before
the vote. He said not only the president of the republic but also the
parliament must be empowered to invalidate international agreements.

Armen Rustamian, another ARF lawmaker who chairs the parliament
committee on foreign affairs, said the National Assembly should also
be given the right to ratify them with "reservations."

"Voting against them means being against the use of this necessary
tool by Armenia," Rustamian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. "We need
to have such a tool."

The amendments were included on the parliament agenda just days
after Sarkisian formally sent the two Turkish-Armenian protocols
to the parliament for ratification. Leaders of the parliament’s
pro-presidential majority have repeatedly stated that the protocols
will not be put to a vote before their ratification by the Turkish
parliament.