The whole week in Armenia passed under the impressions of the meeting between Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Athens, the discussions on the prospects of the Karabakh conflict settlement and ratification of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. The political forces of Armenia also expressed their views, often critical, on the results of the 12th congress of the Republican Party.

Throughout the past week the focus of the Armenian community was on the issues of the Karabakh conflict settlement, and the Munich meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. A little less as compared with the previous week, was touched upon the ratification of Armenian-Turkish Protocols. A significant event of the week was also the 12th congress of the Republican Party of Armenia.

The week began with continuation of discussions over the Armenian-Turkish Protocols, flowed mainly into the criticism of the foreign policy authorities, and conditioned by the weakness of its internal state. As Vahan Shirkhanyan, Member of the Social-Democratic Hunchak Party Central Board, noted on Monday at a press conference, challenges facing Armenia are not decreasing but increasing. He stressed that this process is not natural, but arising from the policies pursued by the Armenian authorities.

Major events of the past week were the responses of various Armenian political parties to external factors, particularly to the statements of Turkish officials, and several political parties' assessment of the state budget of Armenia for the year of 2010.

Internal political life of Armenia in the past week began with a bit livened up discussions between a number of Armenian opposition parties and representatives of the coalition government. The theme for the dispute was two bills, submitted earlier by the political parties "Heritage" and ARF Dashnaktsutyun to Armenian MPs for examination. Representatives of the parties stated that they seek the inclusion in the agenda of the National Assembly of Armenia, the issue of recognizing the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic independence and punishment for denying the Armenian Genocide.

Throughout the past week the domestic political life of Armenia was puffy with ongoing hottest discussions on the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. The coalition of pro-governmental forces, holding a majority in the parliament, was able to defend itself, offering counter-arguments in favor of the initialed Armenian-Turkish Protocols. In essence, they put forward the need to break the economic blockade, open the transport routes via Turkey to Europe and restore the Armenian historical cultural heritage, remaining in Turkey.

Region and even the whole world are frozen in anticipation. And although the date of signing the truly historic protocols between Turkey and Armenia is already announced, the parties proceed with extreme caution. Despite the fact that no force majeure is expected, better safe than sorry. However, Azerbaijan may try to provoke force majeure, staging provocations in Nagorno-Karabakh, like those of March 4 of this year.

Basic political events of the dying week in Armenia were the work of the Council of Elders in Yerevan, sluggish protests of the opposition, break-up of the fact-gathering group of March 1 events, review of the tax bill in the RA Parliament, and suspension of funding provided to Armenia by the program "Millennium Challenges".

The successive meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Prague once again was unproductive. Such was, at least, the impression of the statements, which as always, were filled with on-duty, non-committal phrases. In a word, no "breakthrough" occurred. Nevertheless, Mathew Bryza as always stayed true to himself and again said inopportunely that "an agreement on the Basic Principles was achieved", which immediately caused sharp reaction in Stepanakert.

The year of 2008 was also a time of reformatting the South Caucasus Region. After the «five-day» war of Georgia against South Ossetia it became clear that new division lines were to be outlined in the region. No doubt unwilling to do it himself, President of Georgia made a «regal» present to RF that had long been waiting for an opportunity to gain revenge against the USA for the too profound an interference it had in the solution of Caucasus problems. The result was a much more chaotic bedlam in which even the most «skillful» states were unable to "catch a fish".