During the discussion on the 2012 annual progress report of the Foreign Ministry, Nikol Pashinyan asked Shavarsh Kocharyan, a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, a question. Firstly, he complained that the report had taken a rose-colored view of the situation. “The document is about what incredible and unprecedented success the ministry achieved in the year under review. When the Armenia-Turkey protocols were signed, the government was accused of disrupting the Genocide recognition process. Have any country recognized the Genocide in the past 10 years? Football diplomacy started in 2007; in 2010, Sweden recognized; we haven’t had recognition in 2011, 2012.
“Isn’t it high time that the Foreign Ministry admits that football diplomacy has disrupted the Genocide recognition process?” Nikol Pashinyan requested to answer his questions, using plain language, not diplomatic language. Shavarsh Kocharyan replied: “The Armenia-Turkey protocols – let us not relate them to each other because they were really being slowed down at that time. There is news in the Turkish press as if there are secret negotiations. There are no negotiations; spread of that kind of news is just in Turkey’s interests. Now everything is in our hands, and Turkey is really under pressure from that perspective; we should try to put forward evidence that this whole process of the Genocide recognition has been disrupted by Turkey itself.”
Nikol Pashinyan also asked: “The so-called Khojaly massacre has been recognized by a few states of the US, don’t you think that the Armenian Foreign Ministry deals a blow to the national security of the Republic of Armenia when it puts forward such rose-colored reports.” According to Shavarsh Kocharyan, “They spend huge money on the Khajaly issue, try to ram it through. They have succeeded in some places.” He assured that the Armenian Foreign Ministry was actively working; for example, they had published a booklet about the real events in different languages and spread it. According to Nikol Pashinyan, it was asserted that Turkey had tried to convince the international community, had seen a way to disrupt the Genocide recognition process; i.e., the Deputy Foreign Minister confirmed that Turkey had gained from the Armenia-Turkey protocols what it had wanted, convincing for 5 years.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
