Yerevan breaking Armenia-Turkey protocols

Yerevan is ready to cancel the protocols on establishment of diplomatic relations and development of bilateral dialogue with Ankara, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at the Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

"Armenia is ready to cancel the protocols on establishment of diplomatic relations with Turkey. Yerevan is ready to put an end to the development of bilateral dialogue with Ankara." Sargsyan said.

"Armenia will annul the protocols in the absence of progress on ratifying the documents. This may happen in the spring of 2018," Interfax cited Sargsyan as saying.

On October 10, 2009 Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers signed protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations and normalization of bilateral relations, which were to be ratified by the parliaments of the two countries. However, in 2010 April, Sargsyan suspended the process of ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols by Armenian parliament saying that Turkey was not ready to continue the process. On February 16, 2015 the protocols were called back from the National Assembly according to the degree signed by President of the Republic of Armenia.

Political scientist Orhan Gafarli, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that Yerevan de facto annulled the Armenian-Turkish protocols many years ago, when he refused to accept one of the paragraphs relating to the de-occupation of Azerbaijan's territories, therefore this document has long been of no importance.

"I recall that the document says that Armenia and Turkey respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of borders and non-interference in the internal affairs of other states. In fact, this point says that Armenia should withdraw from the occupied Azerbaijani regions around Karabakh, which Yerevan refused to do and said that there was no such condition in the first interpretation of the protocols. The Turkish side has always said that the document is being examined and will be ratified if Yerevan releases 7 regions around Karabakh and Azerbaijani refugees return to their native land," he pointed out.

"I think that Serzh Sargsyan made this statement with an emphasis on domestic policy, rather than on relations with Turkey. Perhaps he seeks to strengthen anti-Turkish propaganda in Armenia," Orhan Gafarli said.

The director of the Institute of Contemporary Economics Nikita Isayev, in turn, believes that the cancellation of the protocols will further worsen relations between Ankara and Yerevan. "If such ultimatum statements of Sargsyan are implemented and supported by the Armenian parliament, we probably should expect another round of tension, including on this issue, which is sufficiently frozen," he said.

"We should expect Armenia's nationalistic statements regarding Ararat, other symbolic points and, in general, territorial disputes between countries, as well as historical memory," Nikita Isayev expects.