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Politicians Hail Withdrawal Of Armenia-Turkey Protocols

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  • Politicians Hail Withdrawal Of Armenia-Turkey Protocols

    POLITICIANS HAIL WITHDRAWAL OF ARMENIA-TURKEY PROTOCOLS

    12:49 * 17.02.15

    President Serzh Sargsyan's decision to halt the ratification of the
    Armenia-Turkey protocols has been evaluated as a positive step by
    different political figures.

    Speaking to Tert.am, Kiro Manoyan, the political director of the
    Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun, hailed the president's
    move, at the same time stressing the importance of further efforts
    towards recalling the Armenian side's signatures.

    "We must carry this through by recalling the signatures. Even after
    the withdrawal from the National Assembly, I virtually consider the
    protocols still alive. So, excluding the question from the National
    Assembly's agenda does not absolutely imply rendering the protocols
    harmless," he said, otherwise not ruling out the documents' possible
    return to parliament.

    Asked whether that step has to be taken before the April 24 Armenian
    Genocide centennial day, Manoyan said he doesn't think that such a
    time coincidence is absolutely necessary.

    He said the justification for recalling Armenia's signature may
    repeat the reasoning cited by the president in his official address
    to the National Assembly's speaker. "Turkey demonstrated that in the
    past almost six years, it hadn't been open with Armenia in terms of
    establishing relations unconditionally," said the politician.

    Armen Martirosyan, the Heritage party's deputy leader who repeatedly
    poses the question to the parliament's ruling majority, says he
    considers the president's move positive but belated.

    He also agreed that the withdrawal alone is not an exhaustive solution,
    calling for urgent steps to recall also Armenia's signature to declare
    the protocols null and void.

    According to political analyst Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan, the
    president's decision was an attempt to call the international
    community's attention to the fact that Turkey itself bears the entire
    responsibility for the process' failure.

    "I am sure that the protocols' withdrawal was dictated by the political
    realities that we saw in the Armenia-Turkey relations in the past
    couple of years. Armenia was doing everything possible to normalize
    the relations, but not meeting a corresponding reaction by Turkey,
    the official Yerevan could not but withdraw the protocols from the
    parliament," he noted.

    The analyst said he sees that the Turkish authorities' unwillingness
    to normalize relations and their desire to link the process with the
    Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict (over Nagorno-Karabakh) became especially
    evident at the threshold of the Armenian Genocide centennial. "I
    believe that the political decision to recall the protocols was
    made long ago, so they are now interrelating the processes with the
    centenary events," he noted.

    The expert said he never before saw any precondition signaling the
    possibility of reconciliation.

    "I think there will be a call for vigilance for the Turkish society's
    conscious part that sees and realizes denial policy's hazards to
    Turkey's international reputation," Melik-Shanazaryan added.

    http://www.tert.am/en/news/2015/02/17/melqonian/1591734

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