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 YEREVAN
(Yerkir)—The Armenian Revolutionary Federation will hold street
demonstrations on January 12 when Armenia’s Constitutional Court
is scheduled to hold hearings on the Turkey-Armenia Protocols,
said the leader of the party’s faction in parliament.
Vahan Hovannesian, who serves on the ARF
governing Bureau, announced the renewed protests at a press
briefing Monday during which he outlined the various ways to
derail the Armenia-Turkey protocols.
“We have received many applications and
proposals to hold serious actions of protest on the eve of the
announcement of the Constitutional Court decision,” he said.
“Naturally, we were going to do that regardless of anyone and
anything. But now, seeing that a popular wave is again rising,
we can state for certain that there will be no calm in Armenia
during those days.”
Hovannesian explained that the ARF will
launch early next month a new phase of its campaign aimed at
scuttling the implementation of the recently signed
Turkish-Armenian agreements.
Speaking of the increasing weight of foreign
pressure bearing down on Armenia, Hovannesian cited the phone
call late last week by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to
President Serzh Sarkisian immediately after the president
forcefully rebuked Turkish preconditions on the normalization
process.
He said Armenia had viable options, despite
the pressure, such as amending the protocols without withdrawing
from the negotiations. In the event that Turkey did not agree
with the amendments, the talks would begin anew.
“We can safely say that Turkey is violating
the agreements. We can proceed as the Turkish prime minister did
when he said that the Turkish government cannot pressure the
parliament to ratify the protocols. And I am sure in the event
of a free vote the Armenian parliament would not ratify the
protocols,” explained Hovannesian.
Hovannesian also said that even if the
Armenian leadership withdraws from the talks, the ARF would not
return to the ruling coalition. “One thing we saw is that our
authorities are capable of making decisions without prior
consultations.”
The ARF leader was referring to secret
negotiations with Turkey. He added that until this style of
leadership is reassessed the ARF would not be part of any
coalition.
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