Last week David Shahnazaryan, representative of the Armenian National Congress, developed a recommendation to the parliament to prevent the enforcement of the Armenia-Turkey protocols.
David Shahnazaryan claimed the protocols contained dangers connected with the establishment of a commission of historians and linking the issue of Karabakh with the relations between Armenia and Turkey. Thus, according to him in order to neutralize the mentioned dangers our parliament should establish a counterbalance to the article 301 of the Turkish criminal code to ban the Armenian officials from participating in any discussions, which would put the fact of the Genocide under question. The article 301 of the Turkish criminal code envisages institution of legal proceedings against anyone who may even dare to hint that the events in 1915 were genocide. By establishing such law provision Armenia will provide a counterbalance to the Turkish side in the commission. In addition, Shahnazaryan recommends the Armenian parliament to discuss and ratify the protocols first with the precondition that if the Turkish side fails to ratify the documents within two months, our ratified documents will be cancelled.
What do the MPs think about this? Do they have other recommendations? RPA faction member Razmik Zohrabyan thinks our side should not adopt such law because there are no provisions in the protocols banning the fact of the Genocide. He believes Armenia should take this step when the Turkish side suggests including the issue of the Genocide in the agenda. He says that even if Turkey does so, Armenia may refuse. When this commission starts examining the Turkish archives it is not excluded that they will not find anything proving the fact of the Genocide. The Turkish government would not leave these archives as they were without annihilating the facts proving the Genocide. Thus, Turkey will allegedly show that there was no Genocide. Zohrabyan believes that even if the documents don’t exist any more the Turkish society will change after the publication of other documents. We wander whether the Turkish government may accept the fact of the Genocide even if the Turkish people accept it themselves. It may contain a risk of material and moral compensation. The MP believes there will be change of generations in Turkey and new people with new thinking will be in the power and will realize the reality. Foreign experts will work in the commission as well, and there are documents in the archives of Germany, Vatican and other countries too. Zohrabyan does not think the protocols should be adopted by our parliament with a precondition as he has information that there is an agreement that the protocols should be ratified by the Turkish party first. “The president has announced that if they fail to ratify the documents in reasonable terms we will do what the international law allows to do. There is a reasonable term, which is till the New Year time or spring. If they fail to ratify till April, the process may change after April 24. We can say that the Turks are cheating again. Besides that, if they fail to ratify there will be pressure on them by the US, Russia and European Union, who had served as intermediates for the process,” says Mr. Zohrabyan.
ARF faction member Artsvik Minasyan says they have submitted a bill to the parliament to amend the criminal code. “The bill writes that forgetting, refusing, weakening the fact of justifying the Armenian Genocide committed in the Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia shall be subject to financial penalty or imprisonment from 3 to 5 years. The final goal of Mr. Shahnazaryan’s recommendation should be the punishment provision. It means that anyone who tries to put the fact under question, furthermore if this person is from Armenia, should be subject to punishment,” says A. Minasyan. The ARF representative MP does not agree with the recommendation to ratify the protocols with a condition. “We are against these protocols from the very beginning. The price we are paying for opening the borders is too high because we are giving up on our national interests. It cannot bring to anything positive. We are suggesting two tactical solutions: to deem it unconstitutional and take it out from the agenda, or the parliament should reject the ratification,” says A. Minasyan.
The Heritage party knows about the ARF’s bill too and their advisory sub-commission will cooperate with the ARF over this issue. “As for the second issue, I don’t think it may change anything in the future steps. The conditions may not change the issue but may have some influence. If the protocols are good we wander why our authorities don’t ratify them first and wait for the Turks to do it first. This is my question to them,” said Heritage party member Armen Martirosyan.
Concerning Shahnazaryan’s recommendation member of PA party Aram Safaryan said, “I understand that Mr. Shahnazaryan wants to establish a counterbalance to the Turkish article 301, but I have two facts to oppose. First, after the discussions of the past two months hardly there may be any intelligentsia representative, historian or politician who may ever be suspicious in the fact of the Genocide. I think this issue may be solved without the law in Armenia. However I am not against such law. Second, in 2007-2008 the OSCE office of human rights and democracy instructed Turkey to amend the article 301 in a manner to comply it with the European standards. Turkey has accepted the recommendation of the OSCE and taken the commitment to amend the law to narrow the sphere of application. I think that if we adopt a law like the mentioned 301 article, we will meet the resistance of the OSCE and Helsinki commission. Thus the problem is not what to write but how to write in order to escape from obstacles.” Mr. Safaryan has just returned from the fall session of the OSCE parliamentary assembly and he heard some information about the protocols during the session. “As far as I know, there were rumors that the process was in the focus of the attention of the US, EU and Russia, and the two parliaments will discuss the documents at the same time. If it does not happen, the process will be seriously jeopardized in Armenia as well,” said A. Safaryan.