The opposition Armenian National Congress issued a statement today containing a detailed analysis of the Armenian-Turkish relations.

“The Armenian National Congress (ANC) is holding a rally on September 18. It will inaugurate a new stage of national struggle against the usurper regime at the moment that may prove crucial for the Armenian state and people. Day after day the regime proves its incompetence in all the vital fields of state government.

”In fact, the state power has been seized by a criminal group using it for personal enrichment,’ says the statement.

According to the ANC, a similar sad situation can be observed in Armenia’s foreign policy. “The recently released Armenian-Turkish Protocols demonstrated the failure of the regime’s policy. The assurances of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations and of the reopening of borders are devalued by inadmissible provisions imposed by Turkey, we which means Armenia has accepted Turkey’s preconditions,” the statement says.

“It is obvious that the formation of an intergovernmental commission of historians is to Turkey’s advantage. The supposed Armenian-Turkish dialogue over historical facts will put an end to the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and the issue causing tension in the Armenian-Turkish relations will be smoothed away.

As regards Armenia, it, at the cost of renouncing its demand for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, received a `paper promise’ of reopening of borders. Moreover, Turkey would reopen the border under its Government’s decision, whereas now that the Protocols have been approved, it will be possible provided they are ratified by the Turkish Parliament. This enables the Turkish Government to demonstrate ‘formal constructivism’ in normalizing its relations with Armenia, assigning the Turkish Parliament a task of making the ratification conditional on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

”The incumbent regime even accepted one more precondition set by the Turkish side, namely, the recognition of inviolability of borders and territorial integrity under a special bilateral agreement. However, on the one hand, Armenia did not have to make such an extra step, as, by joining the UN and OSCE, the country accepted the fundamental principles of international law. On the other hand, for some reason, the Protocols do not mention another fundamental principle of international law, namely, the nations’ right to self-determination.

“Thus, the incumbent regime’s allegations that it has managed to reach an agreement with Turkey without any preconditions, particularly, get the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement considered in isolation from the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, are a downright lie.

”In fact, Armenia’s incumbent regime has shown that, being domestically illegitimate, it is ready for inadmissible foreign-policy concessions to consolidate its own power and obtain external legitimacy," says the ANC’s statement.

The ANC leader also point out that the aforementioned facts add to the suspicions that “the regime is ready for similarly inadmissible bargains over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.”