“What is the reason why you think that the Armenian members in the scientific subcommittee will prove to be more professional than unprofessional? The very name of the subcommittee implies that the evidence of the Armenian Genocide produced up to now is not so convincing, and the subcommittee need new evidence,” Vahan Hovhannisyan, the ARF Bureau member, stated at today’s parliament hearings of the Armenian-Turkish protocols.

Addressing the resumption of the Kars-Gyumri rail communication, he pointed out that a Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railway will be constructed and, in case the Kars-Gyumri railway reopened, “which I am skeptical about, it will be a dead end, which will only have a sense if it runs as far as Nakhichevan. And to make use this short branch, we are ready for concessions.”

Hovhannisyan said that despite the 20-year-long struggle for settling Nagorno-Karabakh and liberated territories, no progress has been made. “If the territories were settled, there would be no Madrid Principles now for Turkey’s attempts to link the Armenian-Turkish negotiations with the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process,” Hovhannisyan said.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) had for over ten years been part of power in Armenia, but the territories had never been settled. What is more, outflow of population from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia has been registered since.

As regards the U.S. $500m Russian stabilization loan, Hovhannisyan pointed out that the Government “just sent the monies down the drain”. He expressed the confidence that at the next elections the incumbent authorities will have to be accountable to the people for failing to keep their promises, as well as for their national policy.