From the point of view of Ankara, Turkish Foreign Ministry gave an expected and, in a certain way, right assessment to the decision of the RA Constitutional Court on the Protocols of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. Indeed, why should be ratified the protocols that do not at all bring together the Armenian and Turkish peoples, no matter how passionately the superpowers should long for it? After all, only three generations have passed, and it is too short a period to consign to oblivion the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. And if you take into account the general attitude of the Turkish society towards Armenians, it becomes clear that the Protocols were originally doomed to failure.

As expected, after a 10-day New Year holiday the first working week was politically eventful. The main event was the assembly of the Constitutional Court of Armenia, which was to issue a verdict on the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. More acute was Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's unexpected visit to Yerevan.

Armenia is ready to resist the second wave of crisis, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan stated, summing up 2009 results. As Tigrah Sargsyan noted: "The depth of the crisis can't be assessed or the time for the second wave forecasted. Still, we have to be ready to face it." According to him, Armenia is prepared for the year 2010. "With a balance of AMD 80 billion, stabilization fund of AMD 54 billion and EU financial assistance of USD 100 million we have enough resource to provide macroeconomic stability and face new challenges," he stressed.

A couple of years ago I had a chance of an interview with Robert Sahakyants and one could not assume at that time that he would leave the world so soon. We all knew he was ill, but no one suspected how serious the illness was. He was one of those without whom, in his opinion, everything would sink in sweet syrup. All that you'll read further are his direct words, as we thought no one could speak of Robert Sahakyants and the world surrounding him better than he himself. For some reason he always spoke Russian, although he knew his native language perfectly well. Call it freak of a genius if you like, but now that he is gone words, however beautiful they might be, are needless.