Armenian NA speaker not to discuss Protocols until they are ratified by Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - At the same sitting on Monday, the RA National Assembly discussed the Treaty on formation of CSTO rapid reaction force. Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Armen Rustamyan presented the positive decision of the commission and noted that still much should be done on the mechanism of making decisions within the CSTO, since the Council of Defense Ministers of CSTO member states makes decisions by consensus. “Some work should be done in this direction to make sure the mechanism of consensus is not used for long-lasting postponement of decisions,” Rustamyan said.

Answering the question of whether or not the agreement contradicts Armenia’s cooperation with NATO within IPAP (Individual Partnership Action Plan), RA Deputy Defense Minister Ara Nazaryan said they do not contradict each other in any way, since the formats of Armenia’s cooperation with NATO and with the CSTO member states do not match at all.

Tuesday, February 23, at a press conference in Yerevan Head of the Armenian delegation to PACE Davit Harutyunyan made a speech. “The Armenian government has already initiated introduction of amendments to the RA Law on International Agreements. The issue will be discussed during next 4-day parliament session,” Harutyunyan said. Commenting on possible discussion of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols in Parliament, Harutyunyan stressed Armenia should not hurry, since the country has already taken all the appropriate steps towards their ratification. “No one can make us take a step we consider disadvantageous,” noted Harutyunyan. He also considered it wrong to ratify the Protocols with reservations, since “It would mean rejecting them,” he said. “We’d better reject the Protocols rather than ratify them with reservations,” Harutyunyan stressed.

On the same day Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandyan presented the bill on amending the RA Law on International Treaties in the National Assembly of Armenia. According to Nalbandyan, the bill refines internal procedures related to suspension of a treaty at the time of its signing. As the Foreign Minister of Armenia noted, according to Vienna Convention the Republic of Armenia has the right not to join an international treaty until the end of its conclusion. “This bill provides a legal basis for Armenia to withdraw from a treaty at any stage of its conclusion,” Nalbandyan stressed.

To the question of MP from “Heritage” faction Armen Martirosyan whether the bill could be considered in the light of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s statements on suspending the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols in case Turkey delayed the process, Nalbandyan answered positively. “Protocols are international agreements too and, if necessary, provisions of this bill can also be applied in relation to them,” Nalbandyan explained.

The next day, February 24, the Armenian Parliament passed amendments to the Law on International Treaties. Parliamentary faction of the “Heritage” Party voted down the bill. According to Head of the faction Stepan Safaryan, the hasty adoption of the bill is incomprehensible to the “Heritage”, since the Vienna Convention already provides such an opportunity. “If the Foreign Minister had made it clear that adoption of the bill was related to protraction of ratification of the Protocols by Turkey and to the attempt of Turkey to prevent or suspend international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, this haste would have been grounded,” Safaryan declared.

On the government’s request, the Parliament was to hold the second hearing within 24 hours.

“Armenia's position remains unchanged: Armenian-Turkish normalization is not related to the Karabakh settlement,” reiterated Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan on the same day, during the “government hour” at the National Assembly of Armenia. According to him, if Turkey now lays down such preconditions, it is the business of Turkish government with all the ensuing consequences.

Around 60 representatives of the National Neoconservative Movement (NNM) of Armenia held a rally at Chinese Embassy in Armenia Thursday, February 25. Following the appeal of NNM chairman Edgar Gegelyan to recognize the Armenian Genocide, demonstrators passed a letter addressed to the Ambassador of Peoples’ Republic of China. The letter urged PRC to recognize the Armenian Genocide and acknowledge Azeri aggression against Nagorno Karabakh in the 20th century as a consequence of pan-Turkic program, drawing analogies between reunification of Taiwan with China and Artsakh with Armenia.

On February 25 Armenian Parliament in second hearing passed the bill on amending the RA Law on International Treaties. Commenting on the reasons for the hasty adoption of the bill, the RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan explained that the instruction was given by the President of Armenia. According to him, after ratification of the Protocols by Armenia, President of the country, before exchanging the documents with the other party, must have a legal basis for disavowing international treaties. “It should not be taken as contempt of Parliament. It proceeds from the actions of the other side,” the Foreign Minister explained.

ARF Dashnaktsutyun did not participate in voting, while the “Heritage” voted down the bill.

On Thursday, RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan, during a meeting with Armenian students in a public lesson at the Parliament said the Armenian-Turkish Protocols would not be discussed in the Parliament until Turkey ratified them.

On Friday, February 26, appeared the first assessments of the amendments made to the RA Law on International Treaties. During a briefing, Ara Nranyan, MP from the parliamentary faction of ARF Dashnaktsutyun, stated the Armenian leadership had hurried in adopting the bill, because new rapid developments still awaited the region.

But Deputy of “Orinats Yerkir” Party Hovhannes Margaryan was of a different opinion. The MP explained that the bill was not adopted specifically for suppression of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. “The bill grants the Armenian President the right to disavow international treaties, regardless of what stage of conclusion they are in,” Margaryan stressed.

At the end of the week, February 26, the youth wing of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party in connection with the 22nd anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms of Armenians, issued a statement, which assessed the events in Sumgait as “well-planned genocide”. The statement also said that as long as international community has not given a clear assessment to the Genocide of Armenians in Sumgait, it will be impossible to exclude similar phenomena in future. “What happened in Sumgait was genocide, whose foundations were laid in the beginning of the previous century,” the statement particularly read.