DASHNAK LEADER HAILS SARKISIAN’S ‘AUDACITY’

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Wednesday, 28 April 2010 20:28

RFE/RL — A leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun) on Wednesday praised President Serzh Sarkisian’s
decision to freeze the normalization process with Turkey, seemingly
contradicting his party’s reaction to the move.

Dashnaktsutyun is a vocal critic of Sarkisian’s conciliatory line
on Turkey, having pulled out of his coalition cabinet a year ago in
protest. Its senior representatives have said that Yerevan should have
formally walked away from the Turkish-Armenian protocols, instead of
only suspending the procedure of their ratification by the Armenian
parliament on April 22.

But Aghvan Vartanian, a member of the nationalist party’s governing
Bureau, was more positive about the move, saying that the protocols
are now "effectively dead" and that Armenians should therefore
"appreciate the president’s audacity."

"Of course, we could have shut the door, rescinded our signature, and
that would have been right," Vartanian told a news conference. "But
unfortunately, our country is still not that strong and independent.

Unfortunately, we are still not Turkey."

"Nonetheless, I think the issue is closed, and that is good," said
the former labor minister.

The remarks contrasted with what another Dashnaktsutyun Bureau member,
Vahan Hovannisian, said in the Armenian parliament on Tuesday. He
downplayed the significance of Sarkisian’s move, arguing that
the National Assembly would not ratify the protocols before their
endorsement by the Turkish parliament anyway.

The former deputy parliament speaker argued that Sarkisian stopped
short of even recalling them from the assembly. "The president should
have recalled the protocols in order to send or not send them back
or to send them back with reservations later on," he said.

Hovannisian, who now leads Dashnaktsutyun’s parliament faction, said
the influential party remains of the opinion that the Armenian leader
should have scrapped the accords altogether. "As long as Armenia’s
signature remains in those documents, we will be susceptible to
[external] pressures," he said. "They [foreign powers] will make
every effort to open a new door to Turkey, in terms of ratification,
and I’m worried that that will be done at our expense. Namely, by
forcing us to make unilateral concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh."