Aravot.am asked the Head of the Department of the Armenian Cause and History of the Armenian Genocide, Institute of History at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Armen Marukyan about how he assesses, as a historian, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan’s decision to recall the Armenia-Turkey protocols. “This move is logical and completely fits in the spirit and letter of the Pan-Armenian Declaration, because there was already some discrepancy between the Declaration and the Protocols, because whenever we refer to Woodrow Wilson’s arbiter decision and the Treaty of Sevres, and we knew what territories and boundaries were included in this document, it is obvious that the covert reference here towards the Treaty of Kars, i.e. the existing border document, reaffirms this provision of the countries, somewhat opposes to it, and it is no more logical to continue the process of overcoming the consequences of the Armenian genocide, given these protocols at the legislative body,” said the historian.
In his words, this is the first move that needs to be reinforced by the second move, also by recall of the signature. “Unless the signature of the Republic of Armenia is underneath this document, it is not ruled out that the Turkish side can go for provocations and ratify the protocols after we remove it from the agenda to show to the international community, look, how more law-abiding country I am than the neighboring Armenia, while everyone knows that the Turkish side was the one to violate it. Hence, after the recall, all possible Turkish provocations will become null and void. These are the correct and sequential moves by which the Republic of Armenia and all Armenians should move ahead to the centennial of the Armenian Genocide,” opines Head of the Department of the Armenian Cause and History of the Armenian Genocide, Institute of History at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Armen Marukyan.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
