“Everything is good, the Armenian diplomacy does everything right and there is no need to worry.” Yesterday’s press conference of the foreign affairs minister of Armenian Edward Nalbandyan can be concluded in this one sentence. “One year ago the president of Armenia initiated a qualitatively new process of relations with Turkey, as a result of which the parties, despite various and different obstacles, having had showed enough political will, were able to come to a mutual agreement and move forward,” said the minister by mentioning that the two protocols are a key harbor for the normalization of the relations between the two countries. Nalbandyan finds it erroneous that there are concerns about the assumption that the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations is firmly linked with the NKR conflict. “I am sure that we don’t link the two issues and neither do the co-chairs of the Minsk Group,” assured Nalbandyan. He advises people concerned about Protocols on Armenian-Turkish relations not to panic. Nalbandyan sees nothing ambiguous in the disputed protocols. "There is no mention about the Karabakh conflict, Armenian Genocide or the Kars Treaty. The protocols will serve as an anchorage cementing Armenian-Turkish relations," notes the Armenian foreign affairs minister. "Regardless of numerous obstacles and announcements we were able to demonstrate political willpower, move ahead and reach an agreement. Today the whole world welcomes this step." He also added, “As we repeatedly stated, intergovernmental committee to be created will discuss all issues on Armenian-Turkish relations. The committee will include several subcommittees, one of them in charge of restoration of trust between the two countries.” According to him, Negotiations with Ankara did not include discussions on Armenian Genocide, neither was the issue mentioned in protocols. “In international relations and the meaning of the international law they don’t speak about concealed things; they speak of things, which are evident and written down,” said Nalbandyan perhaps by forgetting the famous saying that diplomacy is the art of speaking of the concealed stuff. On the other hand, however, he mentions that the regulation of relations is a quite difficult process and only after long-lasting negotiations was it possible to come to this point – the pre-signing of the two protocols. And when they say negotiations, let alone a long-lasting one, it implies mutual compromises and problems. Maybe Nalbandyan thinks that the leaders of the two countries had an objective of just beautiful formulation of statements in the protocols, such as friendly relations, peace, regional security, etc. In that case, a question comes out, what is the reason of this long-lasting negotiation? Nevertheless, if there is anybody, who believes in the words of Nalbandyan then it means that our country still has incorrigible optimists, who believe in yesterday’s statement of the foreign affairs minister, “I don’t ever tell lies.” Let us also mention that it’s not yet the time of final encouragement or frustration, the publicized protocols must be finally signed first and submitted to the parliaments of the two states for ratification. It means that there is a lot to go through and at the moment it is hard to say how this process will end up. For example, both of the countries assured that they’ll do their best to make sure that the parliaments ratify the protocols. However, “will Turkey respect this agreement? We’ll see about that,” says Nalbandyan. At any rate, according to the minister, Armenia has already benefited from this process by presenting itself as a reliable partner to the world. The evidence of that is that this step is being greeted in the highest level and has the approval of the world. Nalbandyan has also distantly tried to sedate the Azerbaijanis by referring to the statement of the ministry of the foreign affairs of Russia, which read that the protocols don’t harm any third party. “Only Azerbaijan is against but it is mistaken. Stability and peace in the region will have a positive impact on Azerbaijan as well,” said the minister. It is hard to say how convincing the words of Nalbandyan are for the Azerbaijanis (although it doesn’t much matter). But our problem is that Nalbandyan’s allegations are mildly said unconvincing for the Armenian citizens at least for political forces. For example, the Dashnaks have launched a rally dedicated to this issue, which started right after the press conference of Nalbandyan. And the interesting thing is that despite the fact that “one year ago the president of Armenian initiated a new qualitative process of normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations,” but the Dashnaks would demand the resignation of the foreign affairs minister.
