ARF to Continue Demonstrations Against Protocols
YEREVAN (Yerkir)—The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) will hold street demonstrations on Jan. 12, when Armenia’s Constitutional Court is scheduled to hold hearings on the Turkey-Armenia protocols, said the leader of the party’s faction in parliament.
Vahan Hovannesian, who serves on the ARF’s Governing Bureau, announced the renewed protests at a press briefing Monday, during which he outlined the various ways to derail the Armenia-Turkey protocols.
“We have received many applications and proposals to hold serious actions of protest on the eve of the announcement of the Constitutional Court decision,” he said. “Naturally, we were going to do that regardless of anyone and anything. But now, seeing that a popular wave is again rising, we can state for certain that there will be no calm in Armenia during those days.”
Hovannesian explained that the ARF would launch a new phase of its campaign early next month aimed at scuttling the implementation of the recently signed Turkish-Armenian agreements.
Speaking of the increasing weight of foreign pressure on Armenia, Hovannesian cited the phone call late last week by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to President Serge Sarkisian immediately after the latter forcefully rebuked Turkish preconditions on the normalization process.
Sarkisian said Armenia had viable options despite the pressure, such as amending the protocols without withdrawing from the negotiations. In the event Turkey does not agree with the amendments, he said, the talks would begin anew.
“We can safely say that Turkey is violating the agreements,” said Hovannesian. “We can proceed as the Turkish prime minister did when he said that the Turkish government cannot pressure the parliament to ratify the protocols. And I am sure in the event of a free vote, the Armenian Parliament would not ratify the protocols.”
Even if the Armenian leadership were to withdraw from the talks, he said, the ARF would not return to the ruling coalition. “One thing we saw is that our authorities are capable of making decisions without prior consultations,” he explained, referring to the Sarkisian Administration’s secret negotiations with Turkey. Until this style of leadership is reassessed, he said, the ARF would not be part of any coalition.
