Epress.am News from Armenia
What’s interesting in recent political developments is that the Republic of Turkey has now resubmitted the Armenian-Turkish Protocols to the Turkish Grand National Assembly, said Regional Studies Center (RSC) NGO Director Richard Giragosian in an interview with Epress.am today.
“After the election in June, the Protocols were removed from the agenda of the new parliament with many other bills. That was normal; it was general procedure in every parliament. When there’s an election for a new parliament, much of the outstanding legislation that wasn’t voted on has to be removed and then resubmitted,” he said.
But what’s interesting, the political analyst continued, is that Turkey chose now to resubmit the Protocols.
“In my opinion, it’s a sign of two things: One, that diplomatically, Turkey is beginning to return to the opening [i.e. reviving relations] with Armenia, especially after this week’s diplomacy in the United Nations.
“The second reason is more negative: it’s another way to test Armenia. In other words, now Turkey will say to the Americans and the Europeans… it’s not up to us, we submitted the Protocols, the next move is back to Armenia.”
In Giragosian’s opinion, the real test now is if and how Armenia reacts now to Turkey’s move.
To the Epress.am reporter’s comment “So now the ball is in our court,” Giragosian replied:
“Not really. In other words, Turkey is saying that — that’s their excuse and their trick. Everyone is waiting for Turkey to make the next move — to open the borders, establish diplomatic relations, But this is a convenient way for Turkey to shift the blame and expectations back on Armenia. It will only work if Armenia doesn’t respond effectively. It’s also a reaction to [Armenian] President [Serzh] Sargsyan’s speech in the United Nations. So we will see these two things: another test of Armenian foreign policy and diplomacy, but also a sign for Turkey that it may signal a return to [the] Armenian issue. Mainly because of the Kurdish initiative, and because Libya, Syria are much bigger problems.”
Epress.am then asked the analyst for his opinion on how the Armenian government will respond.
“Well, as I’ve said before, it’s the worst time in Armenian history to have the worst foreign minister. I’m not confident that the [Armenian] foreign ministry will respond effectively. It’s up to the Armenian president in order to answer this challenge from Turkey, and we haven’t seen anything yet,” Giragosian concluded.