Hardly there would be anyone to think that the protocols might not be signed between Armenia and Turkey. It was the vice versa, the government assured that the protocols would be signed anyway.
It was a surprise for everyone that foreign minister Nalbandyan unexpectedly delayed the signing of the protocols. The Armenian party does not provide any details about the reason of delay. They only say that there were unacceptable expressions in the announcements text of Turkish foreign minister Ahmed Davutoglu. They don’t provide any details about the mentioned text and what specifically they did not like. However, the foreign media published information that in the announcement text the Turkish party wanted to link the protocols with the issue of Karabakh conflict and progress in the process of settlement. Later the Turkish foreign minister and prime minister came up with announcements. “Armenia cannot hope for positive attitude from Turkey if it does not go out of the occupied lands,” said Erdogan following the signing of the protocols.
The intrigue of delaying the process by several hours has become a topic of discussions in Armenia and different political powers have different opinions about the reasons. For example, ARF representative Kiro manoyan says they have information that the Turkish party did not want to include the topic of Karabakh conflict in his speech was not true but in fact they wanted to attach a document with information about the conflict of Karabakh to the protocols. “According to the Vienna convention on the agreement, in order to include a provision as a part of the document, it should be submitted to the other party in written. The Armenian delegation received it 10-15 minutes before going out of the hotel and decided not to go until it would be taken back or something would change. In fact it is not about words in oral speeches but the attempt on part of Turkey to link the issue of Karabakh conflict with the relations as a precondition. However as the co-chairmen of Minsk group had numerously said and announced that the issue of the developing relations between Armenia and Turkey is not connected with the conflict of Karabakh, they tried to convince Turkey to change the text. Even they sent another version of the text. At that time the Turkish delegation was in the university of Zurich, and the US Secretary of State was at the hotel where the Armenians were staying,” said Kiro Manoyan.
Yesterday the Russian media published information that the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who was participating in the process too, had sent a secret message to foreign minister Nalbandyan writing the following: “Edward, agree without announcements”. The mentioned message was undersigned by the foreign ministers of France and Slovenia, EU general secretary Javier Solana as well. The American side assures that the conflicts were overcome due to the efforts of Clinton. The mentioned information shows that Nalbandyan was under pressure to sign the protocols in Zurich. “It means he did not sign the protocols with a will, that is why the impression of his face was rather different than Davutoglu,” says Kiro Manoyan.
The ARF official says the fact of signing the protocols without announcements is not such a big achievement on part of Armenia. It would be an achievement if after that incident Nalbandyan claimed to refuse signing the protocols. “If till the last second Turkey wanted to link the relations with the issue of Karabakh, it would be a good reason for our side not to sign the protocols. In fact the one to sign the protocols was our side and Turkey was trying to develop preconditions all the time,” says Kiro Manoyan and adds that as a result Armenia lost the opportunity to come up with an announcement too.
Edward Nalbandyan did no develop any precondition unlike Davutoglu, but he also tried to use the word Genocide in his speech, which was prevented by the Turkish party. ANC coordinator Ararat Zurabyan believes the announcement of Davutoglu shows that the Armenian party is “lying”. “Nalbandyan only could prevent the announcements, which would discover the content of the deal. If the Turkish foreign minister was allowed to make an announcement, everyone would understand that the authorities are lying when they are trying to introduce the situation otherwise. The reality is marred. The first lie is that the commission of historians will not examine the issue of the Genocide, and second, the allegation that the relations between Armenia and Turkey are not linked with the issue of Karabakh. Nalbandyan did not sign in order to hide it. It means that the foreign ministry is working to provide a good PR policy and hide the meaning of the deal,” says Zurabyan.
The ARF does not demand the resignation of the president, who is the first person to be responsible for Armenia’s foreign policy. “We don’t exclude such possibility but our goal is to do our best to prevent the approval of the protocols,” says Kiro Manoyan.
This time the ARF hopes the parliament will fail to approve the protocols. Kiro Manoyan has this hope because of the announcement of the president and RPA officials, who say the Armenian parliament will not approve the document until it is done by the Turkish parliament. The ANM officials are still discussing the issue. “Turkey openly announced that they would open the border only after settling the conflict of Karabakh. Turkey had the opportunity to agree with the protocols demonstratively because they have the opportunity to fail the documents in the parliament. They involved Armenia in these tricks and got what they wanted to get. Despite the potential approval of the protocols the process of genocide recognition is stopped already. The international organizations and other countries have the information that the sides will establish a commission of historians, thus they will not discuss the issue as they will refer to this commission. It means that it does not matter whether the documents will be approved or no, Turkey has got what it was looking for. As for Armenia’s benefits, we will benefit from it only after the documents are approved, and Turkey wants to link this issue with the conflict of Karabakh,” says Zurabyan.