Another god-for-saken slyness
"The current authorities want to "throw" the burden off their shoulders and that is why they say that the protocols must be ratified by the parliament," former NA chairman Babken Ararktsyan told "A1+".
"The Constitution separates the responsibilities of the National Assembly, the President and the Government. There must be political will and determination instead of throwing the burden on other people's shoulders," says Ararktsyan
Ararktsyan has generally been in favor of normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations since the 1990s."But we must understand what price we are paying for that. Once, for the first time, chairman of the USSR Committee of Ministers Kosigin announced that the Soviet Union has no territorial claims from Turkey and that caused a heated reaction not only in Armenia, but in the Diaspora as well. Then Robert Kocharyan made a similar announcement, but they were just oral. Now the borders will be set on paper; in other words, this is between two states," says Babken Ararktsyan.
Ararktsyan is also concerned about the timeline for discussions and consultations.
"The issue had to be solved through serious, detailed discussions and not through a six-week discussion. Leading this most significant and fatal issue based on some football game timeline is an immoral attitude toward the issue concerning Armenians everywhere."
Ararktsyan views the recent dangers of war in the context of the propaganda.
"They are presenting the danger of war to our people so that they can justify that there would be a war otherwise."
Babken Ararksyan also knows that the protocols are directly tied to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution. "I think that all possible and impossible concessions were made before the Turkish side agreed to this kind of protocol."
According to Ararktsyan, the Turkish side tried to present the issue of the Turkish-Armenian commission in secret, but it is clear that it is stated in the document and thus, the genocide issue is not only excluded from the agenda of the international community, but it is also out of the relations between Turkey and Armenia.
Serzh Sargsyan has clarified that there will be a sub-committee of the intergovernmental commission. In response to that, Ararktsyan said: "That is another god-for-saken slyness. It just has to be translated into normal words and everything will be clear."
