Speaking at a rally of thousands of supporters of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), Chairman of the People’s Party Stepan Demirchyan severely criticized the Armenian-Turkish Protocols initialed on August 31. According to him, the Armenian Opposition is supportive of the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. However, the process must not be “at the expense of national dignity.”

Demirchyan regards as unacceptable the formation of a bilateral commission to study the 1915 events in the Ottoman Empire. According to him, forming a commission is the best way of “burying” any issue.

“Evidence thereof is the ad hoc commission set up to investigate the March 1 events. The commission made an attempt to `bury’ the process of identifying the real criminals after the post-election developments. The issues of the Armenian Genocide will meet the same fate, to say nothing of the fact that the current developments are a way to stop the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide,” Demirchyan said.

He also stressed that the possible reopening of borders will not improve life in Armenia until the “criminal-oligarchic government system is dismantled.”