POLITICIANS HAIL WITHDRAWAL OF ARMENIA-TURKEY PROTOCOLS
12:49 * 17.02.15
President Serzh Sargsyan’s decision to halt the ratification of the
Armenia-Turkey protocols has been evaluated as a positive step by
different political figures.
Speaking to Tert.am, Kiro Manoyan, the political director of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun, hailed the president’s
move, at the same time stressing the importance of further efforts
towards recalling the Armenian side’s signatures.
“We must carry this through by recalling the signatures. Even after
the withdrawal from the National Assembly, I virtually consider the
protocols still alive. So, excluding the question from the National
Assembly’s agenda does not absolutely imply rendering the protocols
harmless,” he said, otherwise not ruling out the documents’ possible
return to parliament.
Asked whether that step has to be taken before the April 24 Armenian
Genocide centennial day, Manoyan said he doesn’t think that such a
time coincidence is absolutely necessary.
He said the justification for recalling Armenia’s signature may
repeat the reasoning cited by the president in his official address
to the National Assembly’s speaker. “Turkey demonstrated that in the
past almost six years, it hadn’t been open with Armenia in terms of
establishing relations unconditionally,” said the politician.
Armen Martirosyan, the Heritage party’s deputy leader who repeatedly
poses the question to the parliament’s ruling majority, says he
considers the president’s move positive but belated.
He also agreed that the withdrawal alone is not an exhaustive solution,
calling for urgent steps to recall also Armenia’s signature to declare
the protocols null and void.
According to political analyst Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan, the
president’s decision was an attempt to call the international
community’s attention to the fact that Turkey itself bears the entire
responsibility for the process’ failure.
“I am sure that the protocols’ withdrawal was dictated by the political
realities that we saw in the Armenia-Turkey relations in the past
couple of years. Armenia was doing everything possible to normalize
the relations, but not meeting a corresponding reaction by Turkey,
the official Yerevan could not but withdraw the protocols from the
parliament,” he noted.
The analyst said he sees that the Turkish authorities’ unwillingness
to normalize relations and their desire to link the process with the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict (over Nagorno-Karabakh) became especially
evident at the threshold of the Armenian Genocide centennial. “I
believe that the political decision to recall the protocols was
made long ago, so they are now interrelating the processes with the
centenary events,” he noted.
The expert said he never before saw any precondition signaling the
possibility of reconciliation.
“I think there will be a call for vigilance for the Turkish society’s
conscious part that sees and realizes denial policy’s hazards to
Turkey’s international reputation,” Melik-Shanazaryan added.