ARMENIA PASSES BILL TO ALLOW VOIDING OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN PROTOCOLS

Radio Free Europe
February 25, 2010

YEREVAN — Armenia’s National Assembly has passed a billthat will
make it easier for Yerevan to abandon two protocols on establishing
diplomatic relations with Turkey, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reports.

The parliament passed on the third and final reading amendments to an
existing law on interstate treaties that would allow the suspension
or termination of international agreements that have been signed by
Armenia before they go into force.

The vote was 70 in favor and four against.

The nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun)
party boycotted the vote.

The amendments now await President Serzh Sarkisian’s signature to
become law.

Sarkisian announced in December his intention to enact these
amendments in response to Turkish leaders’ repeated statements pegging
Ankara’s ratification of the two protocols to a resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

But Sarkisian has made it clear that Yerevan will walk away from the
deal if Ankara fails to ratify it within a "reasonable" time frame.

The parliament overwhelmingly passed the amendments on the first and
second readings on February 23 and 24, respectively.

Opposition Zharangutyun lawmakers said Armenian law and international
conventions signed by Yerevan already allow for the abrogation of
international treaties, and voted against the amendments.

Dashnaktsutyun deputies criticized the amendments during the first
reading.

Dashnaktsutyun deputy Artsvik Minasian argued that not only the
president of the republic, but also the parliament should be empowered
to invalidate international agreements.

Armen Rustamian, another Dashnaktsutyun lawmaker who chairs the
parliament committee on foreign affairs, said on February 23 that the
National Assembly should also be given the right to ratify them with
"reservations."

He denied any contradiction between the Dashnaktsutyun criticism of
the amendments and its deputies’ decision to vote for them.

Sarkisian formally submitted the two Turkish-Armenian protocols to
the parliament for ratification on February 15.

Leaders of the parliament’s pro-presidential majority have repeatedly
stated that the protocols will not be put to a vote before they have
been ratified by the Turkish Parliament.