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Protocols Submitted To Armenian Parliament

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  • Protocols Submitted To Armenian Parliament

    PROTOCOLS SUBMITTED TO ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT

    http://www.asbarez.com/2010/02/protoco ls-submitted-to-armenian-parliament/
    Feb 12th, 2010

    YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-President Serzh Sarkisian formally sent Armenia's
    normalization agreements with Turkey to parliament for ratification
    on Friday after his government approved legal amendments making it
    easier for Yerevan to walk away from the deal.

    The government said in a statement on Thursday that the proposed
    amendments to an Armenian law on international treaties allow Yerevan
    "not to become a party" to a particular agreement before its entry
    into force.

    "We are now establishing that before the entry into force of an
    international treaty Armenia may stop participating in it," Deputy
    Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian was reported to say during
    a cabinet meeting. He said the president of the republic would be
    able to "terminate or suspend the process of signing" such a treaty.

    Sarkisian announced his intention to enact such amendments in December
    in response to Turkish leaders' continuing statements making the
    ratification of the Turkish-Armenian "protocols" conditional on
    a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh favoring Azerbaijan. He made
    clear that Yerevan will annul the deal if Ankara fails to implement
    it within a "reasonable" time frame.

    Sarkisian reaffirmed the threat during a visit to London this week.

    "If, as many suspect, it is proven that Turkey's goal is to protract,
    rather than to normalize relations, we will have to discontinue the
    process," he warned.

    Sarkisian stressed at the same time that Armenia's National Assembly,
    dominated by his loyalists, will promptly ratify the protocols in
    the event of their endorsement by the Turkish parliament.

    His press secretary, Samvel Farmanian, told RFE/RL's Armenian service
    on Friday that the president has asked the assembly to start the
    ratification process. Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has been
    tasked with "presenting" them to Armenian lawmakers, Farmanian said.

    Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan described the dispatch of the protocols
    to the parliament as further proof of Yerevan's "sincere desire to
    establish good relations with neighboring states." He said it showed
    that "we are prepared for the ratification of those protocols."

    "It is a signal to both our domestic public and the international
    community," the premier declared at a panel discussion on
    Turkish-Armenian relations held in Yerevan on Friday.

    "But they will not be debated until Turkey's parliament ratifies the
    protocols," Galust Sahakian, the parliamentary leader of the governing
    Republican Party of Armenia, clarified in an interview with RFE/RL's
    Armenian service.

    Sahakian also confirmed that the amendments drafted by the government
    allow Armenia to withdraw its signature from the protocols. "After all,
    reasonable timeframes must have an end-point, and if the Turkish side
    again tries to drag out the process ... we will simply be obliged to
    withdraw our signature," he said.

    "In my view, that reasonable time frame is already expiring," added
    Sahakian. "We are just waiting for the glass to be filled to the brim."

    Opposition lawmakers critical of the Turkish-Armenian agreements were
    less than satisfied with the draft amendments. Armen Rustamian ,the
    chairman of the parliament committee on foreign relations and the
    leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's Supreme Council in
    Armenia, dismissed them as "cosmetic."

    "These changes are mainly a political trick with which the authorities
    are trying to show Turkey that they have such an option and thereby
    to prod Turkey to ensure a quick protocol ratification," said
    Artsvik Minasian, another ARF lawmaker. He reaffirmed the party's
    strong opposition to an unconditional Armenian ratification of the
    protocols, saying that would contradict a ruling handed by the Armenian
    Constitutional Court last month.

    The Turkish government likewise claims that the court ruling is
    at odds with key protocol clauses. It is particularly unhappy with
    the court's conclusion that the protocols cannot stop Armenia from
    advocating international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

    The Sarkisian administration has insisted, however, that the court's
    interpretation does not run counter to the letter and the spirit of
    the deal. U.S. officials have made similar statements.
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