Manoyan: Withdrawal of Protocols a Welcome Step, but Not Enough

YEREVAN (A.W.)—Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) Bureau member Giro Manoyan has called President Serge Sarkisian’s decision to withdraw the Turkey-Armenia accord from the National Assembly a first step to completely neutralize the protocols, however, he stressed that Armenia must take this further. “This is a welcome step, but is not enough. It is necessary to completely neutralize and recall the signatures,” Manoyan told Yerkir.am, adding that there has always been the possibility of withdrawing from the protocols.

According to Manoyan, Sarkisian mentioned the possibility of withdrawing from the accord as early as September 2014, during his speeches at the 5th Armenia-Diaspora Conference and UN General Assembly.

He also noted that the ARF-D demanded the withdrawal of Armenia’s signature from the very beginning, when it was clear that Turkey was not ready to establish relations with Armenia without preconditions.

ANCA issues statement

Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian released a statement stressing the importance of withdrawing Armenia’s signature from the Protocols. “Withdrawing these flawed and failed Protocols from Parliament represents a step in the right direction—one that needs to be followed immediately by the next logical step of withdrawing Armenia’s signature from these Ankara-inspired accords,” said Hamparian.

“As we stressed in 2009—and as is painfully clear today—Armenia should never have signed these one-sided agreements.  Once in place, despite Turkey’s obvious lies and endless preconditions and manipulations, this farce was allowed to continue for far too long.  Even through all of this, we remain encouraged that, despite Ankara’s efforts—through the Protocols and other instruments of denial— to downgrade the Armenian Genocide from an unpunished international crime into a simple bilateral conflict, the Armenian people—in our homeland and diaspora—remain united in our resolve for a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian Genocide, ” concluded Hamparian.

Earlier today, Sarkisian sent a letter to the Chairman of the National Assembly Galust Sahakyan, informing him about his decision to withdraw the protocols from the National Assembly of Armenia, reported Armenpress.

On April 23, 2009, an agreement of “mutual understanding,” defined as a “roadmap,” had been agreed upon by Armenia and Turkey assuring the world that mutually beneficial relations between them were forthcoming.

In the days leading to the signing of the proposals, Sarkisian made a tour of several Armenian communities around the world, including New York, Paris, Beirut, and Los Angeles, only to be met with scorn and outrage.

Public outcry had virtually no swaying influence on the resolve of the Armenian authorities, and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian alongside his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu signed the protocols in Zurich on Oct. 10, 2009.

On April 22, 2010, only seven months after signing the accord, Sarkisian made a statement, in which he made it clear that the political majority in the National Assembly considered statements from the Turkish side unacceptable, “specifically those by Prime Minister [Recepy Tayyip] Erdogan, who has again made the ratification of the Armenia-Turkey protocols by the Turkish parliament directly dependent on a resolution over Nagorno-Karabagh.”