YEREVAN. – The withdrawal of the Armenian-Turkish protocols from the Armenian parliament was due to Turkey’s position.

Vigen Kocharyan, the Chair of the European and International Law at the Faculty of Law at Yerevan State University, stated the aforesaid at a press conference on Friday.

As per Kocharyan, the Turkish side has posited preconditions, and therefore it is fully accountable for the failure of the process of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations.

“If we asses the protocols from the international perspective, I don’t see any particularly distressing circumstances in terms of content. Basically, it is about two matters: the agreements that determine the Armenian-Turkish border, and the setting up of various commissions (…).

“The preamble of the Armenian-Turkish protocols is spoken about in the agreements about determining the borders. (…). [But] the provisions in the preamble of the protocols cannot determine the rights and obligations of the parties,” the specialist specifically noted.

As for the part about the setting up of commissions, including a commission of historians, Kocharyan expressed the view that we need to accept the idea that if the Armenian-Turkish relations will move off the ground at some point, it may become necessary to also include the historians in this process.

“Of course, our leadership has repeatedly stated that the fact of the Armenian Genocide is not a discussion topic. But there are several other matters—for example, the matter of the return of Armenian property—which need to be discussed,” Vigen Kocharyan said adding that, from this viewpoint, such a commission may theoretically function in the future.

As reported earlier, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on Monday addressed with a letter to National Assembly Speaker Galust Sahakyan, and informed him that he has decided to recall the Armenian-Turkish protocols—which the FMs of both countries had signed in 2009 in Zurich, Switzerland—from the parliament.