Friday, after the session of RPA Supreme Body, the speaker of the party, Eduard Sharmazanov referred to Armenian-Turkish protocols. In particular, to the overview as if lately the leadership of Armenia has announced the Armenian-Turkish protocols will be regarded invalid in Spring and that Turkey reflected on it, saying they are ready to verify them, bringing about preconditions, return of territories and etc., Sharmazanov responded: “First and foremost, the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey is at least extraordinary and at least unacceptable not only for the Armenian side but also generally, for all mediating parties. In 2009, Zurich Protocols were without preconditions. What the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey says, not a word, even a punctuation mark has been included in the protocols. The ground of the protocols was the issue of establishing diplomatic relations without preconditions between Armenia and Turkey. And speaking about some preconditions it is merely a distortion of the reality and Turkey tries to make an attempt of removing the responsibility from its shoulders in that way.”
As stated by Sharmazanov, the political leadership of Turkey has been carrying out such policy which does not emanate from the regional security and peace: “Back then Davutoglu had announced – null problem with the neighbors. Today Turkey does not have a null problem with the neighbors but it has reduced the number of the neighbors with which it has no problem up to null.”
Sharmazanov states that the Republic of Armenia rejects any kind of precondition, and to connect Armenian-Turkish relations and protocols with Karabakh issue is extraordinary, as it would be the case if we, for example, connected Armenian-Turkish relations with the de-occupation of Cyprus or Turkish-American, Russo-Turkish or Turkish-Israeli issues.
Referring to Garo Paylan’s statement implying that murders of famous Armenians living in Europe are planned by Turkey, Sharmazanov answered: “What took place in Turkish Parliament, this also mirrors that the political leadership of Turkey, Turkish MPs have not learnt anything but have not forgotten anything as well in these 100 years, as they are used to say about Bourbons. If they killed Grigor Zohrap, the member of Turkish Parliament, they apply violence against the ethnic and religious minority representatives in their Parliament. As long as Article 301 is present in Turkey, as long as Turkey goes for the policy of denial, as long as Turkey’s leadership visits the neighboring country not for negotiations but for imposing on revision of Lausanne Conference, as it was the case with Greece, we should be conscious that Turkey and democracy, Turkey and tolerance expressions are not synonymous.”
