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 YEREVAN
(RFE/RL)–President Serzh Sarkisian will lose power if he presses
ahead with the signing of controversial agreements with Turkey,
a top leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation warned on
Wednesday.
“I think that he must
finally sober up and refuse to sign them just because of his own
interests,” said ARF Bureau chairmen Hrant Markarian. “You must
not cut the tree branch on which you are sitting.”
Markarian claimed that a
deal with Turkey negotiated on the existing terms would the last
straw for a considerable part of Armenia’s population unhappy
with the government. “The people would sooner or later hold him
accountable, and the price would be heavy,” he said, adding: “I
believe that he would not be able to carry on.”
The ARF, which pulled out
of the country’s governing coalition in April in protest against
Sarkisian’s conciliatory line on Turkey, has strongly condemned
the Turkish-Armenian draft protocols publicized on August 31. It
particularly opposed the protocol provisions requiring Armenia
to formally recognize its existing border with Turkey and agree
to the establishment of a joint body tasked with examining the
troubled common past of the two nations.
But despite the harsh
criticism, the ARF has so far refrained from demanding
Sarkisian’s resignation. Its leaders say they will instead focus
on forcing important changes in the protocols or scuttling the
deal altogether.
The ARF will not boycott
Sarkisian’s meeting on Thursday with the leaders of dozens of
political parties active in the country. Armen Rustamian, the
chairman of the ARF Supreme Council of Armenia, who will attend
the meeting, said he will challenge the president to clarify
whether it is possible to amend the protocols before their
signing expected next month.
Markarian and Rustamian
spoke to RFE/RL in Yerevan’s Republic Square where dozens of ARF
members continued a non-stop sit-in against the Turkish-Armenian
agreements.
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