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ENCINO, CA–The ARF and AYF have begun
organizing town-hall meetings throughout the Western United
States to inform Armenian communities of the current state of
negotiations between Armenia and Turkey.
The community briefings, which began this
week with two meetings in the San Fernando Valley and Orange
County, will be updating Armenian Americans on the ongoing
developments in the anti-protocols initiative and providing
avenues for activism on the issue.
The first town-hall was held at Ferrahian
Highschool in Encino on November 19. More than 200 people
attended the discussion, lead by ARF Central Committee Members
Steven Dadayan and John Kossakian.
Kossakian presented a brief history of
Armenian-Turkish relations since the independence of Armenia,
discussing Turkey’s decades long blockade of Armenia and its
efforts at pressuring the young Armenian republic into making
the difficult choice between the Armenian people’s historical
rights or the country’s economic prosperity.
On April 22, Armenia and Turkey announced
they had agreed to a roadmap to normalize their relations and
open the closed border. The announcement came on the eve of the
94th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, allowing US President
Obama to backtrack on promises to recognize the Armenian
Genocide. Amid intense opposition and protests by Armenians
around the world, Armenia’s foreign minister signed agreements
with his Turkish counterpart on October 10 to establish ties
between the two countries.
The signature came despite Turkey’s strong
preconditions that Armenia must relinquish legal rights to
historic territories in Turkey, agree to the establishment of a
historical commission to debate the Genocide, and concede the
independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to Azerbaijan.
“Now that the protocols have been signed,
every one’s main concern is which parliament is going to ratify
it first,” Kossakian said, adding that Armenia is currently
playing a waiting game with the document. “Instead of worrying
about this, we should start working on our next step–to confront
the Armenian government about the protocol issues.”
In his remarks Kossakian underscored the
anti-protocols campaign’s latest initiative of channeling public
sentiment against the protocols to pressure the Armenian
parliament not to ratify the devastating documents.
Dissecting the actual provisions in the
protocols, Dadayan discussed the legal implications of the
documents and the heavy burdens Armenia will be required to
uphold if it’s ratified.
Through these protocols, Dadayan explained,
Turkey is seeking to legalize its current de-facto border with
Armenia. The current boundaries are illegal and based on the
illegitimate treaties of Moscow and Kars, signed in the 1920s by
the rogue Bolshevik and Kemalist regimes. If the protocols are
ratified, Armenia will once and for all relinquish its rights to
US President Woodrow Wilson’s arbitral award of historic
territories now under Turkish occupation.
Dadayan also discussed provisions in the
protocols that will constrain Armenia’s relations with Karabakh
and prevent Yerevan from from serving as the guarantor of its
independence and security. He explained that if Karabakh is one
day attacked or overrun by Azerbaijan and Armenia wants to take
action or send medical or military assistance, it is legally
prevented from doing so.
In underscoring the unequal bargaining
position Armenia has been placed in throughout the negotiations
process, Dadayan recalled his encounter with Armenian President
Serzh Sarkisian during his visit to Los Angeles in September to
meet with Armenian Community leaders.
Dadayan said he had asked Sarkisian what
international lawyers and experts of international law were
consulted by the Armenian government about the legal
implications of the protocols, which were drafted in English.
“The president said he was not good in English nor was he a
lawyer” Dadayan recalled, noting that Sarkisian said he trusted
his diplomats enough not to seek professional advice.
The same points were raised at the Armenian
Center in Santa Anna, CA on Saturday, November 20 by Vache
Thomassian from the ARF Shant Student Association. Speaking to
some 50 people, Thomassian reiterated community concerns over
the forced choices being presented to the Armenian people by the
protocols and discussed the unprecedented level of activism
around the issue.
Presenting a photo-montage of global
anti-protocols activities spanning the last two months,
Thomassian stressed the resound impact of the Diaspora’s actions
in Armenia. “Anywhere you had an Armenian community around the
world, you saw people express their disapproval,” he said. “Our
voices were heard and shared all the way to Yerevan, where
60,000 people demonstrated against the signing of the
protocols.”
That there is widespread opposition to the
documents is not surprising. “There’s a lot to be lost here and
very little to be gained,” said Thomassian, explaining the many
preconditions Armenia is faced with if it wants to normalize
relations with its neighbor. “The protocols could very well
evolve into a package deal that includes a quick resolution to
the Karabakh conflict.”
Thomassian discussed the current strategies
and tactics being employed by the “Stop the Protocols” Campaign,
from educating and mobilizing Armenian communities across the US
to work within the American political system to advance the
Armenian Genocide resolution to a vote in Congress.
He also discussed many of the ARF’s recent
initiatives in Armenia. The party has been working around the
clock in parliament and at the grassroots level to not only
prevent ratification but also to address the underlying problem
of corruption, he explained. ARF activists have been visiting
villages, organizing communities to oppose the documents.
Meanwhile, the ARF has been meeting with other parties opposed
to the protocols in Armenia to strategize future joint actions
against ratification.
But neither Sarkisian, nor the protocols are
the “end all problem here,” Thomassian said, explaining that the
present situation is largely due to corruption and a lack of
democracy in Armenia. “The protocols didn’t pop out of nowhere;
they are the result of oligarchs selling out the interests of
the people for their own self interest.”
Thomassian discussed the ARF’s call for a
serious overhaul of the corruption and oligarchic rule in
Armenia, talking about the party’s initiative to build the
groundwork for radical changes in Armenia.”The long-term
objective of the ARF is social reforms, government reforms and
democratic reforms,” Thomassian said. “In the last few weeks the
ARF has been introducing dozens of pieces of legislation in
parliament on issues concerning the national debt, women’s’
rights, poverty, and social security.”
“The protocols are in limbo right now, but
that doesn’t mean we are meaningless; we need to dig in further
and do more work, be more active and get our voices heard that
much louder,” Thomassian exclaimed. “everything we have done to
this point has had an impact and if we can increase the pressure
and create enough obstacles, this thing might completely
collapse.”
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