Wednesday, Yerevan Signals Scrapping Of Turkish-Armenian Accords . Emil Danielyan U.S. - Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian speaks at the UN General Assembly in New York, 19Sep2017. President Serzh Sarkisian indicated late on Tuesday his intention to formally annul the U.S.-brokered 2009 agreements to normalize Armenia's relations with Turkey, citing Ankara's continuing refusal to implement them unconditionally. "Given the absence of any progress towards their implementation, Armenia will declare the two protocols null and void," he declared in a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York. "We will enter the spring of 2018 without those, as our experience has demonstrated, futile protocols." The protocols signed in Zurich in October 2009 committed Turkey and Armenia to establishing diplomatic relations and opening their border. Shortly after the high-profile signing ceremony, Ankara made clear, however, that Turkey's parliament will ratify the deal only if there is decisive progress towards a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. The Armenian government rejected this precondition, arguing that the protocols make no reference to the conflict. The United States, the European Union and Russia have also repeatedly called for their unconditional implementation by both sides. Switzerland -- Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (2ndR) and his Armenian counterpart Eduard Nalbandiana (2nd L) shake hands as they hold signed documents after a signing ceremony, Zurich, 10Oct2009 In his speech, Sarkisian denounced Ankara's "ludicrous preconditions." "Turkey's leadership is mistaken if it thinks that it can perpetually hold those documents hostage and ratify them only on what it sees as the most opportune occasion," he said. The Turkish government did not immediately react to the announcement. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for more international efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict when he addressed the General Assembly earlier on Tuesday. Successive governments in Ankara have kept that border with Armenia completely closed since 1993 in a show of support for Azerbaijan. Sarkisian already threatened in February 2010 to scrap the protocols if they are not ratified by the Turks "in the shortest possible time." But he avoided doing that, saying two months later that he does not want to upset the U.S. and other world powers. Sarkisian formally recalled the protocols from the Armenian parliament ahead of official commemorations in April 2015 of the centenary of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. He told Turkish journalists afterwards that the move "does not presuppose any legal consequences because I did not withdraw Armenia's signatures from the protocols." Turkey -- President Abdullah Gul (R) speaks with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian during the World Cup 2010 qualifying football match between Turkey and Armenia in Bursa, 14Oct2009 Sarkisian's Western-backed policy of rapprochement with Turkey proved highly controversial within Armenia and especially its worldwide Diaspora. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), an influential pan-Armenian party, pulled out of his coalition government in protest in 2009. Dashnaktsutyun and some opposition groups in Armenia were particularly angered by a clause in the protocols that called for the creation of a Turkish-Armenian "subcomission" of historians that would examine the 1915 mass killings and deportations of Armenia. They said that the very existence of such a body could call into question the genocide acknowledged by most Western historians. Sarkisian and his allies denied that. Some critics also questioned economic benefits of an open border with Turkey for Armenia. Economists generally agree that cross-border commerce would be good for the Armenian economy. Just how substantial and quick that impact would be is a matter of contention. A 2015 opinion poll by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), a U.S. non-governmental organization specializing in the South Caucasus, found that only one in two Armenians support the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border. According to the European Union-funded poll, nearly half of respondents felt that it would damage Armenia's national security. Also, 82 percent of those polled agreed with the notion that Turkey "cannot be trusted." More U.S. Lawmakers Visit Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh - U.S. Representatives Frank Pallone (R) and Tulsi Gabbard meet officials in Stepanakert, 20Sep2017. Two more members of the U.S. House of Representatives visited Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday in a show of support for the Armenian-populated territory's pursuit of international recognition. Representatives Frank Pallone and Tulsi Gabbard met with government officials and lawmakers in Stepanakert after touring the nearby historical town of Shushi (Shusha). Pallone, who is one of the co-chairs of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, reaffirmed his pro-Armenian views on the Karabakh conflict. "We believe that the people of Artsakh (Karabakh) must be able to exercise their right to self-determination and have mechanisms for ensuring their security," the Artsakhpress news agency quoted him saying at the meeting. "We are going to do our best within the Congress or within the confines of the [OSCE] Minsk Group # to see if we can play some role in creating some confidence-building measures and obviously pushing along a process that would lead to a peaceful settlement," Pallone told reporters afterwards. "But all of that necessitates that Karabakh continue to be Armenian and have its own self-determination. That, we will always insist on," added the New Jersey Democrat who has repeatedly visited Karabakh in the past. Both Pallone and Gabbard, a Democrat of Hawaii, praised the Karabakh authorities' human rights and democracy records. Karabakh shares "important values" with the United States, Gabbard said. Nagorno-Karabakh - U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard speaks at a meeting in Stepanakert, 20Sep2017. The two lawmakers were accompanied by the chairmen of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and the Armenian Assembly of America, the two main Armenian lobby groups in the U.S. "As our congressional friends saw today, Artsakh is a very American story: the victory of a free people over foreign rule, the well-deserved and hard-earned triumph of democracy over dictatorship," said the ANCA's Raffi Hamparian. Pallone and Gabbard were part of a six-member U.S. congressional delegation that held talks with Armenian lawmakers and senior government officials in Yerevan on Tuesday. Another member of the delegation, David Valadao, travelled to Karabakh on Monday to inspect U.S.-funded demining activities there. Earlier this month, Valadao and other pro-Armenian lawmakers pushed through House of Representatives legislation mandating continued U.S. government funding for the humanitarianeffort. The U.S. Congress has financed it since 2001 as part of direct economic assistance to Karabakh allocated over strong Azerbaijani objections. Armenian General Cleared Of Corruption Charges . Hovannes Movsisian Armenia -- Retired General Melsik Chilingarian speaks to RFE/RL in Yerevan, 20Sep2017. Armenian law-enforcement authorities have dropped corruption charges against a high-ranking Defense Ministry official who was arrested last year, it emerged on Wednesday. General Melsik Chilingarian was taken into custody in May 2016 ten days after being sacked as head of the ministry's Department on Armaments which deals with storage, maintenance and repair of weapons and ammunition supplied to the Armenian Armed Forces. Also arrested was Colonel Armen Markarian, one of Chilingarian's subordinates who was in charge of vehicles used by the army.Armenia's Investigative Committee accused the two men of procurement fraud that cost the state 145 million drams ($300,000) in losses. A uniform-clad Chilingarian was spotted by an RFE/RL correspondent while taking in part in the latest Armenia-Diaspora conference held in Yerevan. He said that he was set free and cleared of any wrongdoing about one month after his arrest. He said investigators found that only Markarian was responsible for the alleged misuse of government money. The spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee, Sona Truzian, confirmed the information. She said that "large-scale investigative actions" taken by the law-enforcement body found no evidence of corrupt practices or other abuse of power by the general. Despite being cleared of the corruption charges, Chilingarian was not reinstated in his Defense Ministry post.He said he now only sits on one of the ministry's advisory bodies. Chilingarian's arrest followed the sackings of Deputy Defense Minister Alik Mirzabekian, as well as General Arshak Karapetian, the Armenian military intelligence chief, and General Komitas Muradian, the commander of the Armenian army's communication units. They came more than three weeks after the outbreak of heavy fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh that nearly escalated into a full-scale Armenian-Azerbaijani war. The four-day hostilities raised questions about the Armenian military's apparent lack of prior knowledge of the assault. Critics also suggested that Karabakh Armenian frontline troops did not have sufficient modern weapons and other military equipment when they came under attack. Both Chilingarian and the Investigative Committee official insisted that the criminal case against him was not connected with the April 2016 war. Aliyev Laments Lack Of International Pressure On `Fascist' Armenia U.S. -- Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in New York, U.S., . Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again strongly criticized the international community on Wednesday for not helping Azerbaijan regain control over Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian-held districts surrounding it. In a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, he also lashed out at Armenia, calling it a "corrupt" and "fascist" dictatorship and branding his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian as a "war criminal." Aliyev repeated Baku's regular claims that Armenia has been ignoring the Karabakh-related resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council in 1993-1994 and trying to maintain the status quo. "The question is how can this corrupt, failed state ruled by a despotic, medieval regime afford to violate international law for so many years and ignore the resolutions of the UN Security Council and statements of the leading countries of the world?" he said. "And the answer is double standards. "There is no international pressure on the aggressor, no international sanctions imposed on the Armenian dictatorship. This policy must be stopped." "The international community must stop Armenian fascism and terror," he added. Aliyev, who is facing growing internationalallegations of corruption and criticism for harshly suppressing dissent in Azerbaijan, did not name any world powers allegedly backing Yerevan. He reiterated instead that "the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be completely restored" as a result of a Karabakh settlement. Sarkisian ruled out such an option when he addressed the UN assembly on Tuesday. He stood by the official Armenian line that the Karabakh Armenians' right to self-determination must be at the heart of any peace accord. Sarkisian said Karabakh cannot be placed back under Azerbaijani rule not least because Aliyev's regime is a "symbol of medieval backwardness." "Azerbaijan has no legal and moral grounds to lay claim to Artsakh (Karabakh)," he went on. "Artsakh has never been part of an independent Azerbaijan." "Whatever variant of settlement we arrive at, the Republic of Artsakh cannot have a lower status and enjoy less freedom than it does now," said the Armenian leader. Peace proposals jointly made by the United States, Russia and France over the past decade call for a phased resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute. It would start with a gradual liberation of virtually all seven districts around Karabakh that were occupied by Armenian forces in 1992-1994. In return, Karabakh's predominantly ethnic Armenian population would be able to determine the territory's internationally recognized status in a future referendum. Aliyev and Sarkisian traded the verbal attacks ahead of a possible meeting in New York of their foreign ministers. The U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group hope that the meeting will prepare the ground for an Armenian-Azerbaijani summit later this year. Press Review "Zhamanak" analyzes possible implications of Prime Minister Karen Karapetian's latest remark that he would like to continue serving as prime minister next year. "Karen Karapetian was never known for his determination and straightforward answers," writes the paper. "If he is now making clear his ambitions relating to 2018, one can presume that either a political decision has been made or that Karen Karapetian intends to seriously fight, with the help of Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian, for power in 2018. We are more inclined to believe in the former." It suggests that the premier would have hardly made such a statement without having reason to be optimistic about his political future. "Haykakan Zhamanak" speculates, meanwhile, that President Serzh Sarkisian "did everything" to sack Karapetian or force him to resign before the Armenia-Diaspora conference that began on Monday. "Sarkisian had serious reason to do so," writes the paper. "As we all know, the Diaspora is not quite enthusiastic about Armenia's current authorities and has reservations and grievances on many issues. In this situation, with his European image Karen Karapetian could become a real alternative for respected Diaspora figures." The paper claims that Karapetian has also received "serious support" from the West of late despite his strong connections with Russia's government and business circles. It points to statements by Western diplomats hailing his reform agenda. Karapetian could therefore pose a "serious threat" to Sarkisian, concludes "Zhamanak." "Zhoghovurd" blasts government plans to step up the teaching of the Russian language in Armenian schools. A government document disclosed by the media last week stresses the importance for Armenians to speak "different foreign languages." The paper says that the government is singling out only one of those languages. "This is an abnormal phenomenon," it says, adding that the Armenian authorities are trying to promote Russian under pressure from Moscow. "Hraparak" is unimpressed with the latest Diaspora-Armenia conference, saying that many of its participants are now less enthusiastic than they were during the previous gatherings held in Yerevan. This is why, the paper says, some Diaspora Armenians openly criticized the Armenian authorities this time around. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org