PROTOCOLS NOT DEAD BUT RATHER IN PARLIAMENTARY SHELVES AND WAITING, SAYS MURAD MERJAN

Tert.am
28.04.10

The Armenia-Turkey Protocols are not dead, Chairman of the Committee
on Foreign Affairs in the Turkish parliament, Murat Merjan, said at
an interview with the Turkish NTV TV channel, referring to Armenia’s
decision to suspend their ratification in the Armenian parliament.

"For the Protocols to die, Armenian authorities must withdraw their
signature from those documents. That is to say, theoretically we
can say that the Protocols may die when the Armenian authorities
recall them from the parliament or withdraw their signature from the
Protocols. Besides the term ‘frozen’ is not a proper one. The most
correct characterization for the recent developments in the process
might, perhaps, be to say that currently the Protocols are kind of
waiting in the Armenian and Turkish parliamentary committees. That is
to say, we would not have been mistaken to say that those documents
have been put in the drawer of the Foreign Affairs Committees in the
two parliaments," said Merjan.

Asked what he meant by saying that the Protocols are waiting in
the parliamentary committee, i.e. after what satisfactory steps for
Turkey they might be brought to the parliamentary agenda Merjan said
the following: "For the Protocols to be brought to our [parliamentary]
committee, it is necessary to see such developments which will not run
counter to our people’s conscience. First of all, as we have stated
for several times, Armenia and Azerbaijan should settle the current
problems … as the main reason for the closure of the border with
Armenia were not the disagreements between Armenia and Turkey but
rather Armenia’s seizure of Azerbaijani territories. That is to say,
that Armenia and Azerbaijan should develop a mechanism to resolve the
problems. The second, and equally important, point is the ruling by
the Armenian Constitutional Court over the Armenia-Turkey Protocols."