President can't dispel doubts of ARF Dashnaktsutyun around Armenian-Turkish ProtocolsSeptember 17, 2009 - 19:18 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - ARF Dashnaktsutyun during political consultations presented to the President and leaders of Armenian political parties their concerns and attitudes in connection with the Protocols on normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, Armen Rustamyan , representative of the Supreme Body of ARF told reporters after the consultations. "During the meeting, I tried to show to the political forces that the Protocols have preconditions. These documents suggest that normalization of relations with Turkey will happen at the cost of fulfilling the requirements of Turkey, " Armen Rustamyan said. According to him, during the meeting it became clear that changes in the protocols may be made only during ratification stage. "This means that during negotiations the Armenian side can take into account the fears and to decide - to use them in negotiations or not. It does not suit us and is unacceptable to us, " the representative of the ARF Supreme Body said. According to Armen Rustamyan, during the meeting it became clear that Yerevan and Ankara must either sign the current version of Protocols, or not sign anything at all. "I think that in the course of consultations the President understood the current concerns," he said. According to him, despite the fact that some political forces defended the approaches of ARF, nevertheless, the gathered mostly positive assessed the existing protocols and approved the steps of the Armenian government. "The Armenian side avoids making changes in the Protocols, since it fears that the Turkish side also can do this step. But we must have suggestions, since it is possible that Ankara would present its own proposals, " Armen Rustamyan said. "We must only hope that our negotiators properly represent our concerns in the talks, but I'm not sure that they will be able to do it. I think that the authorities, taking into account all concerns, yet ready to sign the Protocols in their current form. They say they are confident and be able to remove the threats," Armen Rustamyan said. Top stories Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took to social media to thank his Lithuanian counterpart for the contribution. President of the Armenian parliament Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova. Achieving stable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains a priority of the OSCE, said Ian Borg. The Cabinet of Ministers decided on Thursday, November 9 to allocated AMD 120 million to arrange the gathering. Partner news | Concept to complete Yerevan Cascade discussed at city hall A conceptual proposal to complete the Cascade complex in downtown Yerevan has been presented by Jean-Michel Wilmotte. Pashinyan visits flood-hit region Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday, June 8 visited the disaster area in the Lori province. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State to travel to Armenia Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs James C. O’Brien will travel to Yerevan on June 10-12. Power of One Dram to benefit Road of Life, Strong Mind IDBank and Idram summarize the results of the May program of “The Power of One Dram”. |