Senior Armenian officials declined to clarify on Monday when President Serzh Sarkisian could act on his renewed threats to effectively invalidate Armenia’s 2009 normalization agreements with Turkey.
Sarkisian again denounced Ankara for linking their ratification by the Turkish parliament to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict when he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York last week. He said his administration is now “seriously considering recalling the Armenian-Turkish protocols from the parliament.”
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian was unwilling to speculate about possible dates for such a recall. “If that already happened, the president of the republic may have announced it,” Nalbandian told reporters. “But he said what he said. We have nothing to add to that yet.”
Parliament speaker Galust Sahakian also would not be drawn on the subject, saying that it is up to Sarkisian to decide the future of the protocols. “I think that you should not ask me this question,” he said.
Ankara has repeatedly made clear that the Turkish parliament will not ratify the protocols until a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Yerevan rejects this precondition.
Sarkisian has threatened to withdraw Armenia signature from the protocols on at least three occasions in the past. The Turkish government has not reacted to his latest threats.