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PARLIAMENT COUNTS PROTOCOLS NULL, VOID
Vercihan Ziflioglu
Hurriyet Daily News
Aug 29, 2011
Turkey
Protocols signed between Turkey and Armenia in 2009 to normalize
relations between the two countries were recently counted as null
and void after Parliament failed to approve them during its 23rd term.
Armenia also suspended the protocols one year after they were signed
because they were not carried out.
"[Turkey's] aim was obvious from the get-go. The purpose was merely to
attract attention from the international community," Hagop Cakıryan,
an expert on Turkey and a columnist for the Armenian daily Azg,
told the Hurriyet Daily News.
Turkey knew all too well that the protocols were not going to be
enacted even as officials were signing them in 2009, Cakıryan said,
adding that their recent nullification by Parliament sheltered no
surprises. Turkey had been propounding pre-conditions to establish
relations with Armenia on each occasion, he added.
"Turkey expected Armenia to forget the genocide, to hand Karabakh
over to Azerbaijan and to act as a mediator with the diaspora to get
them to halt their campaign for the recognition of the genocide by
the international community, but this failed to materialize. Similar
pre-conditions were set forth before Armenia while the protocols were
being signed, even though Erdogan's government had said there would
be no pre-conditions," Cakıryan said.
"It is no surprise that Parliament counted the protocols as null
and void, but this bears a symbolic significance," Professor Ruben
Safrastyan, director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, told the
Daily News.
"Turkish officials have once again highlighted very clearly that
they do not care about relations with Armenia and that they have lost
their enthusiasm. Turkey wants to have a say in the Middle East, and
therefore it has locked onto the Middle East," Safrastyan said. The
issue of relations with Armenia could once again climb back onto
the agenda on April 24, which is regarded as the anniversary of the
tragic events of 1915, but this would constitute an artificial agenda,
he added. "To cut to the chase, Turkey does not want relations with
Armenia to be normalized," he added.
Vercihan Ziflioglu
Hurriyet Daily News
Aug 29, 2011
Turkey
Protocols signed between Turkey and Armenia in 2009 to normalize
relations between the two countries were recently counted as null
and void after Parliament failed to approve them during its 23rd term.
Armenia also suspended the protocols one year after they were signed
because they were not carried out.
"[Turkey's] aim was obvious from the get-go. The purpose was merely to
attract attention from the international community," Hagop Cakıryan,
an expert on Turkey and a columnist for the Armenian daily Azg,
told the Hurriyet Daily News.
Turkey knew all too well that the protocols were not going to be
enacted even as officials were signing them in 2009, Cakıryan said,
adding that their recent nullification by Parliament sheltered no
surprises. Turkey had been propounding pre-conditions to establish
relations with Armenia on each occasion, he added.
"Turkey expected Armenia to forget the genocide, to hand Karabakh
over to Azerbaijan and to act as a mediator with the diaspora to get
them to halt their campaign for the recognition of the genocide by
the international community, but this failed to materialize. Similar
pre-conditions were set forth before Armenia while the protocols were
being signed, even though Erdogan's government had said there would
be no pre-conditions," Cakıryan said.
"It is no surprise that Parliament counted the protocols as null
and void, but this bears a symbolic significance," Professor Ruben
Safrastyan, director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, told the
Daily News.
"Turkish officials have once again highlighted very clearly that
they do not care about relations with Armenia and that they have lost
their enthusiasm. Turkey wants to have a say in the Middle East, and
therefore it has locked onto the Middle East," Safrastyan said. The
issue of relations with Armenia could once again climb back onto
the agenda on April 24, which is regarded as the anniversary of the
tragic events of 1915, but this would constitute an artificial agenda,
he added. "To cut to the chase, Turkey does not want relations with
Armenia to be normalized," he added.