Armenia's first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, today reacted to yesterday's statement by the office of the third president, Serzh Sargsyan, calling the comparison between the Zurich Protocols and a possible Armenian-Turkish peace treaty unacceptable and completely inappropriate.
Today's commentary from the first president clarifies that Ter-Petrosyan praised the Zurich Protocols as far back as 2009, opposing only one paragraph concerning the creation of a joint commission of Armenian and Turkish historians.
At 168.am's request, the office of the third president responded to the comment:
"In this extremely difficult situation for our state and nation, it is certainly inappropriate to get into such arguments, leaving aside the most important issues, especially when historical realities are distorted.
However, taking into account that the settlement of Armenian-Turkish relations today is again relevant and on the foreign policy agenda of the current authorities, in order to avoid further misunderstandings when making such comparisons, we remind you once again that:
1. The 2009 Zurich Protocols, in particular "On the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey", do not contain any provisions on the establishment of a "joint commission of Armenian and Turkish historians". And in general, it is insulting to compare this document with the treaty that the current leaders of Armenia are negotiating on shameful terms and preparing to sign.
2. Apparently, this is how Levon Ter-Petrosyan interprets or represents the point about creating an intergovernmental commission subcommittee dealing with the historical aspect. It is about the implementation of a dialogue aimed at restoring mutual trust between the two peoples, including the identification of existing problems and the formulation of proposals through an impartial study of historical documents and archives with the participation of Armenian, Turkish, as well as Swiss and other international experts.
In a number of speeches, interviews and messages of the third president it has been repeatedly and clearly emphasized that the relevant subcommittee of the inter-governmental commission is not and cannot be a commission of historians.
3. Article 11 of the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Armenia, on which the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia is based, states: "The Republic of Armenia supports the international recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia."
During the 2008-2018 presidency of the third President, the Republic of Armenia has been consistently guided by the above provision and not only in words, but also in deeds through the steps implemented within the framework of this provision".
