Armenia should declare the Turkish protocols invalid in response to their removal from the Turkish parliament's agenda, an Armenian academic has said.
“We should have done this earlier,” Prof. Ruben Safrastyan, director of the Armenian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Oriental Studies, told PanARMENIAN.Net.
“Although the withdrawal of any bill from parliament is a procedural issue following the election of the new parliament, it’s obvious that the current Turkish authorities have no intention of normalizing relations with Armenia,” the professor continued.
“The protocols are unlikely to return to the Turkish parliament’s agenda. Turkey is not interested in the normalization of relations with Armenia. It's entered a big game in the Middle East.”
Prof. Safrastyan said that Armenia should take Turkey's approach into account when devising its policy towards Ankara.
The two protocols on rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey are among 898 pieces of legislation that have fallen off the Turkish parliament's agenda.
Legislation which has not been approved during the term of the National Assembly automatically expires. The new parliament, which took office last month, has not placed a vote on the protocols on its agenda.
Turkey and Armenia signed the two protocols on normalizing relations in October 2009, but rapprochement stalled in 2010 when both the Turkish and Armenian parliaments refused to ratify the protocols.
On 22 April 2010 Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan suspended the ratification process, accusing Turkey of placing conditions on ratification.
The Turkish leadership has said several times that ratification is possible only when Armenia withdraws its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani land of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts.
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