Hande APAKAN
Mehmet Oğuzhan TULUN
02.10.2014
In his address to the United Nations General Assembly,[i] President of Armenia Mr. Serzh Sargsyan has indicated that the Turkish-Armenian Protocols signed in 2009 might be recalled by the Armenian government.
In a similarly worded article[ii] published in International New York Times on the same day, Sargsyan stated that the protocols have been kept waiting for parliamentary approval for some years now, as the Turkish government has placed the return of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan as a precondition for approval of the protocols. During his address to the General Assembly, Sargsyan relayed the Armenian people’s expression “To hell with your ratification” and expressed that the Armenian government is seriously considering recalling the protocols from the Armenian Parliament.
Following Sargsyan’s address to the General Assembly, during the press briefing for the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme Helen Clark’s visit to Yerevan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandian was asked when the Protocols would be recalled from the Armenian parliament. Mr. Nalbandian’s response was; “If there was such a decision, the President of the Republic would probably say about it. But the President said what he said, and as of now I have nothing to add.”[iii]
Sargsyan’s address to the General Assembly is significant for two reasons. Firstly, it is significant with regard to the expression “To hell with your ratification” that he relayed and implicitly approved. It is inappropriate for a statesman to make an address in the United Nations in such a language, since it is contrary to the spirit of diplomatic courtesy that is exhibited in the UN. In this way, Sargsyan has added a new example for the inappropriate remarks previously made by certain heads of states that have been castigated by civilized circles.
Secondly, the statements made by Sargsyan indicate that Armenia is stubbornly against any dialogue and that it is consciously obstructing the efforts for reconciliation. It appears that the aim of the statements is not to signal the recalling of the Protocols, but to send a signal to Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora to the effect that, until the end of 2015, the Armenians will concentrate all their resources and energy into carrying out propaganda against Turkey. This, in turn, means that the path of carrying out a dialogue with Turkey, in the near future, is being completely blocked off.
Therefore, unfortunately, this comes to mean that a new opportunity in the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation efforts has been lost and that an escalation of tension is being charted by Armenians. However, based on past experience, these kinds of initiatives are bound to remain as political statements without any effective validity. Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora will be frustrated as the bar is being set too high, which raises their irrational expectations. The first sign of this could well be the decision to be taken by the European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber regarding the Perinçek v. Switzerland case.
© 2009-2024 Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM) All Rights Reserved
No comments yet.
-
AVIM AND AZERBAIJAN SAM ARE CO-HOSTING A CONFERENCE ON THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT
Hande Apakan 17.11.2014 -
AVIM HELD A BRAIN-STORMING MEETING ON THE TOPIC “SOUTH EAST EUROPE, THE BALKANS, AND PROSPECTS FOR THE REGION”.
Hande Apakan 31.03.2014 -
AFGHANISTAN'S ABDULLAH LEADS IN VOTE COUNT
Hande Apakan 13.04.2014 -
THE PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA MR. SARGSYAN’S ADDRESS TO THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND HIS LATEST STATEMENTS
Hande Apakan 01.10.2014 -
NEW KIDNAPPING REPORTED IN NIGERIA AS U.S. OFFERS HELP
Hande Apakan 06.05.2014
-
LOW-ENRICHED URANIUM (LEU) BANK TO BE ESTABLISHED IN KAZAKHSTAN
Pelin EMLİK 06.09.2015 -
AN OBJECTION FROM FRANCE: YVES BENARD
Tutku DİLAVER 26.12.2017 -
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN: 24 APRIL
AVİM 21.02.2019 -
GERMANY’S POLITICAL MANEUVERINGS REGARDING THE EVENTS OF 1915
Mehmet Oğuzhan TULUN 02.03.2016 -
THE TURBULENT POLITICAL CLIMATE AND THE PROTESTS TAKING PLACE IN THE STREETS OF TBILISI OVER THE 31 OCTOBER PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Ceyda ACİCBE 12.11.2020
-
Türk-Ermeni İlişkileri Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2022 -
RADİKAL ERMENİ UNSURLARCA GERÇEKLEŞTİRİLEN MEZALİMLER VE VANDALİZM -
PATRIOTISM PERVERTED -
MEN ARE LIKE THAT -
BAKÜ-TİFLİS-CEYHAN BORU HATTININ YAŞANAN TARİHİ -
INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS ON THE EVENTS OF 1915 -
FAKE PHOTOS AND THE ARMENIAN PROPAGANDA -
ERMENİ PROPAGANDASI VE SAHTE RESİMLER -
Türk-Ermeni İlişkileri Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2021 -
A Letter From Japan - Strategically Mum: The Silence of the Armenians -
Japonya'dan Bir Mektup - Stratejik Suskunluk: Ermenilerin Sessizliği -
Türk-Ermeni Uyuşmazlığı Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2020 -
Anastas Mikoyan: Confessions of an Armenian Bolshevik -
Sovyet Sonrası Ukrayna’da Devlet, Toplum ve Siyaset - Değişen Dinamikler, Dönüşen Kimlikler -
Türk-Ermeni Uyuşmazlığı Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2019 -
Türk-Ermeni Uyuşmazlığı Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2018 -
Ermeni Sorunuyla İlgili İngiliz Belgeleri (1912-1923) - British Documents on Armenian Question (1912-1923) -
Turkish-Russian Academics: A Historical Study on the Caucasus -
Gürcistan'daki Müslüman Topluluklar: Azınlık Hakları, Kimlik, Siyaset -
Armenian Diaspora: Diaspora, State and the Imagination of the Republic of Armenia -
Ermeni Sorunu Temel Bilgi ve Belgeler (2. Baskı)
-
CONFERENCE TITLED “HUNGARY’S PERSPECTIVES ON THE TURKIC WORLD"