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Ararat Davtyan

ARF’s Vahan Hovhannisyan Puts Positive Spin on Constitutional Court Decision

ARF Bureau member Vahan Hovhannisyan attempted to put a positive spin on the recent decision of the RoA Constitutional Court which declared that the Armenia Turkey Protocols were indeed “constitutional”.

While he lamented the fact that opponents of the Protocols didn’t succeed in convincing the Court to rule in their favour, even partially, Mr. Hovhannisyan stated that the Court had indeed answered the principle issue at stake – the legal jurisdiction of the Protocols.

“The Court clearly defined that there are just two issues at the heart of the Protocols; establishment of diplomatic relations and the opening of the border,” he argued, adding that the Court firmly laid out the principle that the Protocols were not dependent on relations of a third party, i.e. Karabakh.

Mr. Hovhannisyan seemed to take some solace in the Court’s decision by stating that Armenia, in any future negotiations, was obliged to take into account the preamble of the RoA Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in which reference is made to the pursuit of international recognition of the 1915 Genocide. “In other words, there is no international tribunal that can obligate Armenia to participate in any committee or sub-committee that casts doubt on the reality of the Genocide,” stated Mr. Hovhannisyan.

As to the issue of the recognition of the current borders between Armenia and Turkey, the ARF official pointed out that the Court’s decision stipulated that any border recognition wouldn’t take place with protocols but only by internationally accepted bilateral treaties. He added that the RoA only recognizes those international treaties ratified by an independent Armenian government. “Such treaties regarding the border of Armenia and Turkey do not exist. Thus, the border issue remains unsettled,” Mr. Hovhannisyan argued.

He stated that the best resolution of the matter were if the National Assembly, based on the Court’s decision, did not ratify the Protocols or at least attach certain provisos to the document. Otherwise, stated the ARF official, the points raised in the Court’s decision would remain an internal matter and not have international applications.

“We see a certain tendency out there which believes that the National Assembly has nothing to contribute, that it can ‘wash its hands of the matter’, since the Court has done its work. We won’t allow this to happen. The National Assembly must seriously reflect on the Court’s judgement and incorporate the document into its own decision. How? This is a simple technicality at this point,” concluded Mr. Hovhannisyan.

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