October 12, 2009 - 17:37 AMT
Ankara's destructive position was enough for Yerevan to step away of Protocols
Turkish side's destructive position during Protocol signing ceremony testifies to the fact that Turkey started negotiations with Armenia for realizing its own preconditions, Kiro Manoyan, ARFD Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office director told a news conference in Yerevan. "The presence of Russian, U.S., French and Swiss Foreign Ministers and EU representatives and all their efforts towards achieving Protocol signing are actually pressure against Armenian side," Hay Dat office director said. At that he noted that delay in Protocol signing was caused by Turkish side's desire to make changes not only in Davutoglu's speech but also in Protocol texts. That might have been enough for Armenia side to step away from Protocols," Manoyan stressed.

On Saturday, October 10, Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu signed initialed Protocols on normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. the ceremony took place in presence of Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, Armenia's Ambassador to Switzerland Charles Aznavour, Turkey's Ambassador to Switzerland Oguz Demiral, Slovenia's Foreign Minister and Chair of CoE Committee of Ministers Samuel Zbogar.