Historian about recall of protocols. “The Turkish side can go for
provocations.”

February 21 2015

Aravot.am asked the Head of the Department of the Armenian Cause and
History of the Armenian Genocide, Institute of History at the Armenian
National Academy of Sciences Armen Marukyan about how he assesses, as
a historian, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan’s decision to
recall the Armenia-Turkey protocols. “This move is logical and
completely fits in the spirit and letter of the Pan-Armenian
Declaration, because there was already some discrepancy between the
Declaration and the Protocols, because whenever we refer to Woodrow
Wilson’s arbiter decision and the Treaty of Sevres, and we knew what
territories and boundaries were included in this document, it is
obvious that the covert reference here towards the Treaty of Kars,
i.e. the existing border document, reaffirms this provision of the
countries, somewhat opposes to it, and it is no more logical to
continue the process of overcoming the consequences of the Armenian
genocide, given these protocols at the legislative body,” said the
historian.

In his words, this is the first move that needs to be reinforced by
the second move, also by recall of the signature. “Unless the
signature of the Republic of Armenia is underneath this document, it
is not ruled out that the Turkish side can go for provocations and
ratify the protocols after we remove it from the agenda to show to the
international community, look, how more law-abiding country I am than
the neighboring Armenia, while everyone knows that the Turkish side
was the one to violate it. Hence, after the recall, all possible
Turkish provocations will become null and void. These are the correct
and sequential moves by which the Republic of Armenia and all
Armenians should move ahead to the centennial of the Armenian
Genocide,” opines Head of the Department of the Armenian Cause and
History of the Armenian Genocide, Institute of History at the Armenian
National Academy of Sciences Armen Marukyan.

Gohar HAKOBYAN
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