In a statement commenting on yesterday’s decision by President Sargsyan to suspend the ratification process of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols, the Armenian National Congress (HAK) says that the move is merely confirmation of the bankrupt nature of Sargsyan’s "pro-active" policy. The HAK says that while it supports normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, it cannot accept the tacit Turkish demand in the Protocols that the reality of the Armenian Genocide be questioned by the creation of a committee of historians. "The creation of such a committee not only is an insult to the memory of the Genocide victims but, in practice, rather than assisting in the normalization process it would become a tool to poison relations between our two peoples," reads the HAK statement. The HAK argues that by signing the Protocols, President Sargsyan merely sought legitimacy and the guarantee of assistance from the international community for the current regime which came to power via fraudulent elections and the massacre of March 1, 20008. "Contrary to its declared goals, the Armenian-Turkish normalization process has turned one that has pitted the two peoples against each other," reads the HAK statement. HAK also argues that Turkey, taking advantage of the Armenian regime’s weakness, continually sought to link ratification of the Protocols and the opening of the border with a settlement of the Karabakh conflict. As a result, rather than international pressure decreasing over Karabakh, Armenia was obliged, in the first time since independence, to agree to Karabakh’s right to self-determination within the confines of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity (OSCE Athens statement). By linking Armenian-Turkish relations and the Karabakh settlement process, Turkey has been successful at assuming a pivotal, and for Armenia dangerous, role in international negotiations regarding Karabakh. Furthermore, the Minsk Group schematic for reaching a settlement, the most optimal format, has been endangered.