Armenia: Yerevan in Uproar Over Protocol Signing Date with Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's announcement that Turkey and Armenia on October 10 will sign protocols on diplomatic normalization ties is having an unsettling effect on domestic politics in Yerevan. Some Armenian opposition politicians are complaining that the signing-date announcement makes a mockery of a parliamentary debate on the issue, scheduled to take place on October 1.

Prime Minister Erdogan's statement went no further than to set a signing date for the protocols, according to media reports. Further steps remain. Under the terms of the agreement, the signed protocols would require ratification by the Turkish and Armenian parliaments. Both sides have pledged to open their border, closed since 1993, within two months of the protocols' ratification. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The Armenian Foreign Ministry has not commented on Erdogan's announcement. The spokesperson for Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), however, stated that the decision in no way diminishes the significance of the planned parliamentary debate. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive.]

"The discussions go on, but they are not aimed at changing the authorities' views; these are public hearings," said Eduard Sharmazanov. "Authorities would never sign a document contradicting our national interests, nor would they [normalize] relations with pre-conditions," he said, referring to Turkish calls for Armenia to withdraw troops from territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Back on September 1, Turkish and Armenian leaders announced that six weeks of "political consultations" would take place before the signing of the two protocols. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive.]

On September 17, President Sargsyan held a round-table discussion with leading Armenian politicians. The president at that time pledged that he would take personal responsibility for sorting out any lingering causes of concern for Armenian politicians. "I am going to solve issues," Sargsyan was quoted as saying. "If in order to solve a certain issue, we have closed a certain door, please, show me."

The parliamentary debates were expected to broaden that discussion. Even so, some important opposition groups, especially former president Levon Ter-Petrosian's Armenian National Congress (ANC), continue to shun government-sponsored discussions. The ANC insists the government has already made up its mind.

ANC coordinator Levon Zurabian suggested that Sargsyan is not interested in hearing the opinions of his political opponents. The supposed political dialogue in Armenia is a sham, Zurabian contended, held "in order to get support from the international community."

On October 1, President Sargsyan is scheduled to embark on a week-long "listening tour" that will take him to Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Beirut and Rostov-on-Don. In each city, he is scheduled to meet with representatives of local Armenian communities and get their input on the protocols.

One senior ANC member who supports the protocols calls the trip a further sign that the government has not "moved a finger to make the people a participant" in the reconciliation process with Turkey. "It's very insulting when, instead of substantiating his policy within his own society, Serzh Sargsyan is trying to do it abroad," said Suren Surenyants, a board member for the Republic Party, a member of the ANC.

The RPA spokesperson, Sharmazanov, countered that the listening tour demonstrated Sargsyan's desire to take all opinions into account. "This step of the president shows that he is a supporter of unity, the all-Armenian leader," argued Sharmazanov. "Armenians abroad have serious concerns [about this issue]. He's going to explain and to present everything soberly."

The director of the Yerevan office of one influential Diaspora organization, the Armenian Assembly of America, agrees that Sargsyan's trip is critical. "Diaspora Armenians feel that [Armenia] is their motherland, and we have an important role to play here," Arpi Vardanian said.

Now that Turkey and Armenia seem set to sign the reconciliation protocols, at least one Armenian political party is vowing to fight ratification. "We hope something can still be changed," commented Artashes Shahbazian, parliamentary faction secretary for the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun. For the past 13 days, the party has been staging protests throughout Yerevan, as well as a hunger strike in front of government offices in Republic Square. "We'll continue our fight and protests for the benefit of our country," Shahbazian said.