Armenian NA speaker not to discuss Protocols until they are ratified by Turkey
Home policy review for 22-28 February 2010
27.02.2010 GMT+04:00
Monday, February 22, Armenian Parliament postponed discussion of the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols. The formal reason for postponement was the
request of Chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of
the National Assembly Armen Rustamyan, who claimed the commission had
not yet prepared a conclusion on the Protocols.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At the same sitting on Monday, the RA National
Assembly discussed the Treaty on formation of CSTO rapid reaction
force. Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations
Armen Rustamyan presented the positive decision of the commission and
noted that still much should be done on the mechanism of making
decisions within the CSTO, since the Council of Defense Ministers of
CSTO member states makes decisions by consensus. `Some work should be
done in this direction to make sure the mechanism of consensus is not
used for long-lasting postponement of decisions,’ Rustamyan said.
Answering the question of whether or not the agreement contradicts
Armenia’s cooperation with NATO within IPAP (Individual Partnership
Action Plan), RA Deputy Defense Minister Ara Nazaryan said they do not
contradict each other in any way, since the formats of Armenia’s
cooperation with NATO and with the CSTO member states do not match at
all.
Tuesday, February 23, at a press conference in Yerevan Head of the
Armenian delegation to PACE Davit Harutyunyan made a speech. `The
Armenian government has already initiated introduction of amendments
to the RA Law on International Agreements. The issue will be discussed
during next 4-day parliament session,’ Harutyunyan said. Commenting on
possible discussion of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols in Parliament,
Harutyunyan stressed Armenia should not hurry, since the country has
already taken all the appropriate steps towards their ratification.
`No one can make us take a step we consider disadvantageous,’ noted
Harutyunyan. He also considered it wrong to ratify the Protocols with
reservations, since `It would mean rejecting them,’ he said. `We’d
better reject the Protocols rather than ratify them with
reservations,’ Harutyunyan stressed.
On the same day Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandyan
presented the bill on amending the RA Law on International Treaties in
the National Assembly of Armenia. According to Nalbandyan, the bill
refines internal procedures related to suspension of a treaty at the
time of its signing. As the Foreign Minister of Armenia noted,
according to Vienna Convention the Republic of Armenia has the right
not to join an international treaty until the end of its conclusion.
`This bill provides a legal basis for Armenia to withdraw from a
treaty at any stage of its conclusion,’ Nalbandyan stressed.
To the question of MP from `Heritage’ faction Armen Martirosyan
whether the bill could be considered in the light of Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan’s statements on suspending the ratification
of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols in case Turkey delayed the process,
Nalbandyan answered positively. `Protocols are international
agreements too and, if necessary, provisions of this bill can also be
applied in relation to them,’ Nalbandyan explained.
The next day, February 24, the Armenian Parliament passed amendments
to the Law on International Treaties. Parliamentary faction of the
`Heritage’ Party voted down the bill. According to Head of the faction
Stepan Safaryan, the hasty adoption of the bill is incomprehensible to
the `Heritage’, since the Vienna Convention already provides such an
opportunity. `If the Foreign Minister had made it clear that adoption
of the bill was related to protraction of ratification of the
Protocols by Turkey and to the attempt of Turkey to prevent or suspend
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, this haste would
have been grounded,’ Safaryan declared.
On the government’s request, the Parliament was to hold the second
hearing within 24 hours.
`Armenia’s position remains unchanged: Armenian-Turkish normalization
is not related to the Karabakh settlement,’ reiterated Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandyan on the same day, during the `government
hour’ at the National Assembly of Armenia. According to him, if Turkey
now lays down such preconditions, it is the business of Turkish
government with all the ensuing consequences.
Around 60 representatives of the National Neoconservative Movement
(NNM) of Armenia held a rally at Chinese Embassy in Armenia Thursday,
February 25. Following the appeal of NNM chairman Edgar Gegelyan to
recognize the Armenian Genocide, demonstrators passed a letter
addressed to the Ambassador of Peoples’ Republic of China. The letter
urged PRC to recognize the Armenian Genocide and acknowledge Azeri
aggression against Nagorno Karabakh in the 20th century as a
consequence of pan-Turkic program, drawing analogies between
reunification of Taiwan with China and Artsakh with Armenia.
On February 25 Armenian Parliament in second hearing passed the bill
on amending the RA Law on International Treaties. Commenting on the
reasons for the hasty adoption of the bill, the RA Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandyan explained that the instruction was given by the
President of Armenia. According to him, after ratification of the
Protocols by Armenia, President of the country, before exchanging the
documents with the other party, must have a legal basis for disavowing
international treaties. `It should not be taken as contempt of
Parliament. It proceeds from the actions of the other side,’ the
Foreign Minister explained.
ARF Dashnaktsutyun did not participate in voting, while the `Heritage’
voted down the bill.
On Thursday, RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan, during a meeting with
Armenian students in a public lesson at the Parliament said the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols would not be discussed in the Parliament
until Turkey ratified them.
On Friday, February 26, appeared the first assessments of the
amendments made to the RA Law on International Treaties. During a
briefing, Ara Nranyan, MP from the parliamentary faction of ARF
Dashnaktsutyun, stated the Armenian leadership had hurried in adopting
the bill, because new rapid developments still awaited the region.
But Deputy of `Orinats Yerkir’ Party Hovhannes Margaryan was of a
different opinion. The MP explained that the bill was not adopted
specifically for suppression of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. `The
bill grants the Armenian President the right to disavow international
treaties, regardless of what stage of conclusion they are in,’
Margaryan stressed.
At the end of the week, February 26, the youth wing of the Social
Democrat Hunchakian Party in connection with the 22nd anniversary of
the Sumgait pogroms of Armenians, issued a statement, which assessed
the events in Sumgait as `well-planned genocide’. The statement also
said that as long as international community has not given a clear
assessment to the Genocide of Armenians in Sumgait, it will be
impossible to exclude similar phenomena in future. `What happened in
Sumgait was genocide, whose foundations were laid in the beginning of
the previous century,’ the statement particularly read.
Review prepared by Mikhail Balayan
«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
