Melikyan: Armenian authorities should admit fault in protocols issue

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian authorities should acknowledge that the attempt to normalize relations with Turkey through the protocols signed in Zurich was a mistake, former Foreign Minister of Nagorno Karabakh Republic said.

“Armenia needs precise policy on the Karabakh conflict and relations with Turkey. Emotional talk is not the right thing. The protocols proved that Armenia doesn’t have its own position,” Arman Melikyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter when commenting on Turkey’s withdrawal of protocols from its parliament agenda.

According to him, Armenian-Turkish relations should be normalized but by other means.

On August 22, 2011, Turkey’s Grand National Assembly has withdrawn from the agenda 898 bills, including the Armenian-Turkish protocols envisaging normalization of relations with Armenia and opening of the border. The new Turkish parliament considers that the issue of opening of border with Armenia is no longer actual for the country’s political course. Besides, in compliance with the parliament’s regulations, a bill that was rejected by the parliament loses its legal force during six months.

The protocols were signed in 2009 in Zurich by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu. In April 2010, RA President Serzh Sargsyan decreed to suspend the process of ratification of the protocols due to Ankara’s unwillingness to ratify them.