{"id":16878,"date":"2010-02-10T19:26:45","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T19:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=16878"},"modified":"2023-04-06T15:42:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T12:42:21","slug":"sarkisian-to-send-turkish-armenian-accord-to-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/02\/10\/sarkisian-to-send-turkish-armenian-accord-to-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarkisian To Send Turkish-Armenian Accord To Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"UK — Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian delivers a speech in Chatham House, London, 10Feb2010<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
10.02.2010<\/div>\n
Lusine Grigorian in London, Irina Hovannisian<\/div>\n

President Serzh Sarkisian said on Wednesday that he has decided to formally submit Armenia\u2019s normalization agreements with Turkey to the Armenian parliament for ratification despite what he called Turkish efforts to distort their essence. (UPDATED)<\/p>\n

\nSpeaking during a visit to London, Sarkisian also reaffirmed his threats to annul the two \u201cprotocols\u201d if Ankara drags its feet over their ratification. \u201cIf, as many suspect, it is proven that Turkey\u2019s goal is to protract, rather than to normalize relations, we will have to discontinue the process,\u201d he warned in a speech at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a renowned London think-tank also known as Chatham House.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the meeting here at Chatham House I intend to instruct my staff to send these documents to Armenia\u2019s National Assembly for starting the ratification process,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cI reiterate that as the political leader of the [Armenian] parliamentary majority, I exclude a failure by Armenia\u2019s parliament to ratify the protocols in case of their ratification by Turkey without preconditions in accordance with our understandings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s leaders claim that Armenia itself set such preconditions with its Constitutional Court\u2019s interpretation of the protocols\u2019 implications contained in a recent ruling. They have singled out the court\u2019s conclusion that the deal can not stop Yerevan from seeking greater international recognition of the Armenian genocide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only the Turks that are trying to find something in it,\u201d Sarkisian scoffed during a question-and-asnwer session that followed his speech. \u201cNobody else, no other involved party, sees anything strange in that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other Armenian officials, Sarkisian suggested that Ankara is simply looking for an excuse to avoid normalizing relations with Yerevan before a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. \u201cWould the Turks have been happy if our Constitutional Court had ruled that these protocols do not conform to Armenia\u2019s constitution?\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe they would have been happy, seeing as they are trying to use every opportunity to torpedo the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t understand why the Turks \u2026 attach so much importance to the Constitutional Court\u2019s decision. It\u2019s an integral part of our domestic decision-making process,\u201d added the Armenian leader.<\/p>\n

Ankara says Armenia\u2019s highest court essentially prejudged the findings of an inter-governmental \u201csubcommission\u201d of history experts which the Armenian and Turkish governments plan to set up. Its establishment is one of the key provisions of the protocols.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid we say in those protocols that the Republic of Armenia calls into question the genocide?\u201d countered Sarkisian. \u201cDid we ever say during the negotiations that we are going to hamper the process of international recognition of the genocide? If the Turks think we did, it\u2019s not our fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Yerevan, meanwhile, senior representatives of Sarkisian\u2019s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) reiterated that the National Assembly will not vote on the protocols before their endorsement by the Turkish parliament. Asked by RFE\/RL\u2019s Armenian service when the Sarkisian-controlled assembly might start debating them, Eduard Sharmazanov, the chief HHK spokesman, said: \u201cEverything depends on the Turkish side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Razmik Zohrabian, a deputy chairman of the HHK, said the Turks have until the April 24 anniversary of the genocide to ratify the protocols or face their annulment by Armenia. \u201cApril is a deadline for the United States as well because Congress may recognize the Armenian genocide. That would be big blow to Turkey,\u201d he said, predicting that Ankara will have to drop its preconditions by that time.<\/p>\n

Failure to do that, Zohrabian told RFE\/RL\u2019s Armenian service, would lead Yerevan to declare the normalization process dead. \u201cIf the protocols are not ratified until then we will not have big expectations anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking at Chatham House, Sarkisian again rejected the Turkish linkage between protocol ratification and the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying it is only undermining the two processes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI, however, believe that the rapid normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations can set an example of a proactive problem-solving attitude that will positively stimulate and set an example the resolution of the Karabakh conflict,\u201d he said. \u201cI would like to take one step further and inform you that I am going to invite [Azerbaijani] President Aliyev to the potential opening ceremony of the Armenian-Turkish border.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Karabakh conflict was another major theme of the hour-long speech, with Sarkisian accusing Azerbaijan of provoking an \u201cextremely dangerous\u201d arms race in the region and condemning Aliyev\u2019s regular threats to resolve the dispute by force. He also ruled any out peaceful settlement that would result in Karabakh\u2019s return under Azerbaijani rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cAzerbaijan has exhausted the resources of trust in terms of autonomous status for minorities within its boundaries,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was not and is not capable of providing guarantees of even internal security to such autonomies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarkisian did not comment on chances for the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani framework agreement on Karabakh drafted by the American, French and Russian mediators. The latter have expressed hope that the conflicting parties will overcome their remaining differences this year.<\/p><\/div>\n

https:\/\/www.azatutyun.am\/a\/1954101.html<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK — Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian delivers a speech in Chatham House, London, 10Feb2010 10.02.2010 Lusine Grigorian in London, Irina Hovannisian President Serzh Sarkisian said on Wednesday that he has decided to formally submit Armenia\u2019s normalization agreements with Turkey to the Armenian parliament for ratification despite what he called Turkish efforts to distort their essence. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":783641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,7,41],"tags":[2129],"class_list":["post-16878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenia","category-armenian-question","category-azerbaijan","tag-turkey-and-armenia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}