By Artur Hakobyan

The Turkish authorities, which can condemn the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols to failure by setting preconditions, have been seeking a pretext for blaming Armenia. The Turkish Premier and Foreign Minister have lately been repeatedly stating that the Armenian-Turkish protocols will not be ratified without the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict being settled. By only making such statements Turkey has stalemated the ratification process. Nevertheless, the Turkish Foreign Office issued a statement on the verdict returned by the RA Constitutional Court, which caused a stir among the Turkish mass media.

According to the Turkish Foreign Office’s statement, the RA Constitutional Court’s verdict on the constitutionality of the Armenian-Turkish protocols runs counter to the letter and spirit of the protocols and contains unacceptable preconditions. The Turkish press presented Armenia as a state playing foul and going back on its word.

The Turkish Foreign Office’s statement and subsequent responses created rather negative sentiments. One has only to read the comments on the statements on Turkish websites. You get the impression that Turkey was expecting a window of opportunity for complaints in order to justify its own inactivity in the ratification process. One can hardly think that the action had not been planned. Before the statement was made, Murad Merican, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Turkish Grand National Assembly, stated that the Armenian-Turkish protocols would not be submitted to Parliament, as they would certainly be rejected. To justify itself, the Turkish side employs such methods, doing so by means of its Foreign Office.

The statement issued by the Turkish Foreign Office as followed by a no less scandalous statement by Turkish Premier Recep Erdogan, who was on a visit to Saudi Arabia. He claimed that the RA Constitutional Court had amended the protocols. He raised objections to that. He pointed out that the Armenian side must bring the protocols to their initial form or their future may prove to be uncertain or the documents may be “frozen”. Turkish TV channels keep on broadcasting Erdogan’s statement, to say nothing of the numerous comments on news websites.

Devlet Bahçeli, Chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party, keeps pace with the process as well. He demanded that, after the RA Constitutional Court returned its verdict, the Turkish authorities call back the protocols from Parliament and apologize to the Turkish people. Unfortunately, Turkey continues its double-faced policy: its words differ from its deeds, and that state does not stop shaping a negative public image of Armenians in Turkey.

The simple truth is, however, that the RA Constitutional Court’s verdict is not incorporated in the protocols. The documents will be submitted to the Armenian Parliament in their initial wording, a fact the Turkish politicians are well aware of.

T.P.