US INTERESTED IN SOONEST RATIFICATION OF ARMENIA-TURKEY PROTOCOLS
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.03.2010 16:00 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ US, as Armenia-Turkey rapprochement "godfather",
is interested in soonest ratification of protocols, according to
Heritage parliamentary group leader Stepan Safaryan.
As Safaryan told a news conference in Yerevan, following US House
Foreign Affairs Committee’s passage of H. Res. 252, Armenia gave US
to understand that rapprochement process will be continued only after
final recognition of Armenian Genocide. "Turkey is waiting for US to
guarantee non-inclusion of resolution on Congress agenda."
As Safaryan noted, there are 3 ways out of the situation: US satisfies
either Armenia’s expectations, or those of Turkey. A compromise
solution is also possible: in exchange for Washington’s recognition of
the Armenian Genocide, priority will be given to territorial integrity
principle in Karabakh issue. "I believe, the matter will eventually
be resolved through compromise," he noted.
Heritage parliamentary faction leader emphasized the possibility of
US exerting pressure in Karabakh settlement issue, to bring Armenia to
ratify protocols. As the same time he noted that "Armenia’s ratifying
Protocols will give US a chance to refuse from recognizing the Genocide
in future".
Dwelling on recent meeting between ex Presidents Robert Kocharyan and
Jacques Chirac, Safaryan emphasized that hard as official circles try
to conceal the fact, Kocharyan aspires to return to power. Heritage
parliamentary group leader expressed doubts over the possibility, as
neither international community nor Armenian society have forgotten
the fact of his deceiving everyone for 10 years or the price at which
we transferred power in 2008.
On March 4, 2010, with a vote of 23 to 22, the House Foreign Relations
Committee successfully passed House Resolution 252 (H. Res. 252)
pushing the Resolution in Congress for a final vote yet to be
scheduled.
The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.
To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars and
historians accept this view.