news.am, Armenia
March 13 2010

No benefits from Armenian-Turkish protocols, ARFD rep states

13:35 / 03/13/2010`Any rapprochement was out of the question at all
the stages of the Armenian-Turkish normalization process, and the
sides did not trust each other from the very outset,’ Vahan
Hovhannisyan, Chairman of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun) parliamentary faction, told a press conference.

According to him, it was clear from the outset that Turkey was going
to maneuver and impose its preconditions on Armenia. `The
Armenian-Turkish protocols are obviously detrimental, but we have not
yet seen any benefits,’ Hovhannisyan said. He pointed out the fact
that a number of U.S. Congressmen, who used to be supportive of the
Armenian Genocide resolutions, voted against Resolution #252 this
time. They argued that the approval of the document would be
detrimental to the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation. `U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton voiced a similar opinion: the U.S. does not want
to interfere with the Armenian-Turkish process and she does not
welcome the approval of the resolution,’ Hovhannisyan said.

As regards the RA President Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to the U.S.A. at
the invitation of the U.S. Department of State schedule for mid-April,
Hovhannisyan said that it is another trap, the aim being to `save
President Barack Obama the trouble of spelling the word `genocide’ in
addressing the Armenian people.’

NEWS.am reminds readers that on March 4 the U.S. House of
Representatives Committee of Foreign Affairs approved the Armenian
Genocide resolution. Turkey recalled its Ambassador to United States
for consultations.

T.P.