“Official Yerevan remains firm in its position to welcome efforts by other countries to recognize the Ottoman-era massacres of Armenians as genocide and deems them important not only for Armenia but also for the entire international community, according to the country’s top diplomat,” RFE/RL reports.
Official Yerevan has remained silent on the introduction of an Armenian Genocide recognition resolution in the US Congress only days after Armenian-Turkish protocols on normalizing relations has been signed, triggering speculations, that the resolution was an attempt by the powerful Armenian Diaspora in the United States to interfere with the process of ratification of those protocols in the Turkish parliament.Braking the silence on the issue Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told RFE/RL that “Armenia has always welcomed the recognition of or efforts to recognize the Armenian genocide by other countries.”
“We welcome this also because the issue of the recognition of the Armenian genocide concerns not only our people, it is very important for the entire international community so as to prevent such crimes against humanity from recurring,” Nalbandian said.
The two protocols (Arm) commit Yerevan to recognizing the current border with Turkey, which is seen by opponents of the protocols as a “sellout of historic Armenian lands to the historic enemy”. More importantly, the protocols foresee the creation of a commission of historians which would be studying the Warld War One events. Acceptance by Yerevan of these – essentially Turkish proposals, which have for years been rejected by Yerevan, was strictly criticized in Armenia, as well as by the Armenian Diaspora.
The latest statements by Nalbandian are a serious blow to critics of his policies at home. The statements, however, might also serve the unintended purpose of negatively influencing the decision of Turkish parliament on the signed, but not ratified protocols.
Interestingly, the rhetoric on both sides of the Armenian-Turkish borders seems to indicate, that none of the sides wants these protocols. I just wonder, why…
