ArmInfo.The dominant parliamentary faction Civil Contract has declined a draft statement condemning the so-called Shushi Declaration by the Azerbaijani and Turkish Parliaments.
On February 23, the dominant parliamentary faction thwarted the opposition's attempt to convene a special meeting of Armenia's Parliament to discuss the issue by not securing a quorum. Armenia's Parliament was to hold a special meeting on the initiative of the Armenia opposition faction, on Wednesday, to discuss the Shushi Declaration. The opposition faction proposed that the RA National Assembly issue a statement condemning the ratification of the Shushi Declaration and "expressing deep concern over the ratification by the Azerbaijani and Turkish Parliaments of the declaration the Azerbaijani and Turkish presidents signed in the Azerbaijan-occupied Shushi on June 15, 2021." Back on June 15 and 17, 2021, Armenia's foreign office issued relevant statements.
According to Mr Arsenyan, the statements contained all the key points incorporated in the opposition-proposed draft. He believes the Parliament's position must be identical to that of the foreign office. In their 2021-2026 programme of action Armenia's authorities declared a policy of long-lasting peace and stability and are implementing their foreign policy in line with the programme, with a view of causing no harm to the declared policy. The opposition-proposed document reads that despite the assurances that the Shushi Declaration is not aimed at a third party, its content is obviously against the Armenian people. "It sets the strategic goals of the two nations that carried out a 44-day aggression against the Republic of Artsakh, against Artsakh's self-determination, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, and the rights of the Armenian people, which survived a genocide and was scattered throughout the world," Mr Tevanyan said.
The wordings concerning the "Zangezur corridor" contained in the declaration are evidence that Turkey and Azerbaijan are reaching public agreements on implementation of joint expansionist programmes. The authors of the statement also condemn the Azerbaijani-Turkish agreement on struggling against international recognition of the Armenian Genocide by distorting the essence of the problem and turning it into a subject of historical research.
"The Shushi Declaration is not based on the UN Charter or the OSCE-approved security principles. Rather, it is based on the 'ethnic security' approach, which is in conflict with the fundamental international legal norms. According to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, all the international treaties that are in conflict with the imperative international legal norms are not legitimate.
The provocative and destructive Shushi Declaration is unacceptable to the Republic of Armenia. It is a serious challenge to regional and global security, which does not contribute to our region's peaceful development, is in conflict with normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations without preconditions and arouses serious doubts about official Ankara's real intentions," the draft statement reads.