Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

NA speaker not to discuss Protocols until ratified by Turkey

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • NA speaker not to discuss Protocols until ratified by Turkey

    Armenian NA speaker not to discuss Protocols until they are ratified by Turkey
    Home policy review for 22-28 February 2010
    27.02.2010 GMT+04:00

    Monday, February 22, Armenian Parliament postponed discussion of the
    Armenian-Turkish Protocols. The formal reason for postponement was the
    request of Chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of
    the National Assembly Armen Rustamyan, who claimed the commission had
    not yet prepared a conclusion on the Protocols.

    /PanARMENIAN.Net/ At the same sitting on Monday, the RA National
    Assembly discussed the Treaty on formation of CSTO rapid reaction
    force. Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations
    Armen Rustamyan presented the positive decision of the commission and
    noted that still much should be done on the mechanism of making
    decisions within the CSTO, since the Council of Defense Ministers of
    CSTO member states makes decisions by consensus. `Some work should be
    done in this direction to make sure the mechanism of consensus is not
    used for long-lasting postponement of decisions,' Rustamyan said.

    Answering the question of whether or not the agreement contradicts
    Armenia's cooperation with NATO within IPAP (Individual Partnership
    Action Plan), RA Deputy Defense Minister Ara Nazaryan said they do not
    contradict each other in any way, since the formats of Armenia's
    cooperation with NATO and with the CSTO member states do not match at
    all.

    Tuesday, February 23, at a press conference in Yerevan Head of the
    Armenian delegation to PACE Davit Harutyunyan made a speech. `The
    Armenian government has already initiated introduction of amendments
    to the RA Law on International Agreements. The issue will be discussed
    during next 4-day parliament session,' Harutyunyan said. Commenting on
    possible discussion of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols in Parliament,
    Harutyunyan stressed Armenia should not hurry, since the country has
    already taken all the appropriate steps towards their ratification.
    `No one can make us take a step we consider disadvantageous,' noted
    Harutyunyan. He also considered it wrong to ratify the Protocols with
    reservations, since `It would mean rejecting them,' he said. `We'd
    better reject the Protocols rather than ratify them with
    reservations,' Harutyunyan stressed.

    On the same day Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandyan
    presented the bill on amending the RA Law on International Treaties in
    the National Assembly of Armenia. According to Nalbandyan, the bill
    refines internal procedures related to suspension of a treaty at the
    time of its signing. As the Foreign Minister of Armenia noted,
    according to Vienna Convention the Republic of Armenia has the right
    not to join an international treaty until the end of its conclusion.
    `This bill provides a legal basis for Armenia to withdraw from a
    treaty at any stage of its conclusion,' Nalbandyan stressed.

    To the question of MP from `Heritage' faction Armen Martirosyan
    whether the bill could be considered in the light of Armenian
    President Serzh Sargsyan's statements on suspending the ratification
    of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols in case Turkey delayed the process,
    Nalbandyan answered positively. `Protocols are international
    agreements too and, if necessary, provisions of this bill can also be
    applied in relation to them,' Nalbandyan explained.

    The next day, February 24, the Armenian Parliament passed amendments
    to the Law on International Treaties. Parliamentary faction of the
    `Heritage' Party voted down the bill. According to Head of the faction
    Stepan Safaryan, the hasty adoption of the bill is incomprehensible to
    the `Heritage', since the Vienna Convention already provides such an
    opportunity. `If the Foreign Minister had made it clear that adoption
    of the bill was related to protraction of ratification of the
    Protocols by Turkey and to the attempt of Turkey to prevent or suspend
    international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, this haste would
    have been grounded,' Safaryan declared.

    On the government's request, the Parliament was to hold the second
    hearing within 24 hours.

    `Armenia's position remains unchanged: Armenian-Turkish normalization
    is not related to the Karabakh settlement,' reiterated Foreign
    Minister Edward Nalbandyan on the same day, during the `government
    hour' at the National Assembly of Armenia. According to him, if Turkey
    now lays down such preconditions, it is the business of Turkish
    government with all the ensuing consequences.

    Around 60 representatives of the National Neoconservative Movement
    (NNM) of Armenia held a rally at Chinese Embassy in Armenia Thursday,
    February 25. Following the appeal of NNM chairman Edgar Gegelyan to
    recognize the Armenian Genocide, demonstrators passed a letter
    addressed to the Ambassador of Peoples' Republic of China. The letter
    urged PRC to recognize the Armenian Genocide and acknowledge Azeri
    aggression against Nagorno Karabakh in the 20th century as a
    consequence of pan-Turkic program, drawing analogies between
    reunification of Taiwan with China and Artsakh with Armenia.

    On February 25 Armenian Parliament in second hearing passed the bill
    on amending the RA Law on International Treaties. Commenting on the
    reasons for the hasty adoption of the bill, the RA Foreign Minister
    Edward Nalbandyan explained that the instruction was given by the
    President of Armenia. According to him, after ratification of the
    Protocols by Armenia, President of the country, before exchanging the
    documents with the other party, must have a legal basis for disavowing
    international treaties. `It should not be taken as contempt of
    Parliament. It proceeds from the actions of the other side,' the
    Foreign Minister explained.

    ARF Dashnaktsutyun did not participate in voting, while the `Heritage'
    voted down the bill.

    On Thursday, RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan, during a meeting with
    Armenian students in a public lesson at the Parliament said the
    Armenian-Turkish Protocols would not be discussed in the Parliament
    until Turkey ratified them.

    On Friday, February 26, appeared the first assessments of the
    amendments made to the RA Law on International Treaties. During a
    briefing, Ara Nranyan, MP from the parliamentary faction of ARF
    Dashnaktsutyun, stated the Armenian leadership had hurried in adopting
    the bill, because new rapid developments still awaited the region.

    But Deputy of `Orinats Yerkir' Party Hovhannes Margaryan was of a
    different opinion. The MP explained that the bill was not adopted
    specifically for suppression of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. `The
    bill grants the Armenian President the right to disavow international
    treaties, regardless of what stage of conclusion they are in,'
    Margaryan stressed.

    At the end of the week, February 26, the youth wing of the Social
    Democrat Hunchakian Party in connection with the 22nd anniversary of
    the Sumgait pogroms of Armenians, issued a statement, which assessed
    the events in Sumgait as `well-planned genocide'. The statement also
    said that as long as international community has not given a clear
    assessment to the Genocide of Armenians in Sumgait, it will be
    impossible to exclude similar phenomena in future. `What happened in
    Sumgait was genocide, whose foundations were laid in the beginning of
    the previous century,' the statement particularly read.

    Review prepared by Mikhail Balayan
    «PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X