92 ISSUES INCLUDED IN AGENDA OF NA FOUR-DAY SESSION THAT BEGAN ON MARCH 15

Noyan Tapan
March 15, 2010

YEREVAN, MARCH 15, NOYAN TAPAN. A regular four-day session of the
RA National Assembly began on March 15. 92 issues, including 22
international agreements, are on the agenda.

Among the agenda issues are the Protocol on the Establishment of
Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic
of Turkey, and the Protocol on the Development of Relations between
the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey which were signed
in Zurich on 10 October 2009.

However, as the Speaker of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamian
declared in response to a question of Heritage opposition faction’s
member Armen Martirosian, the political majority of the parliament
will adhere to their decision: the protocols will be discussed at
Armenia’s National Assembly only after their ratification by Turkish
parliament. As regards the likelihood that the executive authority
will withdraw the protocols from the National Assembly, according to
H. Abrahamian, it is a decision to be taken by the country’s president
and the foreign ministry which are responsible for the foreign policy.

The NA speaker did not agree with the opposition deputy’s claim that
the recent statements made by official representatives of Turkey were
"slaps in Armenia’s face". "An idle talk is not a slap in the face,
and if any authorities (I mean the Turkish authorities) sign a protocol
without any preconditions and then they do not ratify that protocol
and start making statements against protocol signing, I neither take
such authorities seriously nor consider them as serious," H. Abrahamian
said, adding that Turkish authorities "don’t have a serious attitude
to the protocols they signed".