Unfair negotiators from Yerevan

Moreover, Armenians have falsified their past. They are not even willing to admit their present and predict the future.

The Armenia-Turkey protocols signed in Zurich on Oct. 10 envisage warming relations between the two countries. According to the documents, once they are approved by legislatures of the two countries, Armenia-Turkey border will reopen and diplomatic relations will be established. “Good intentions" of the signers have rested on the fact of occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia.

Both Azerbaijani officials and society voiced a strong protest to an attempt of rapprochement between the two countries claiming that Azerbaijan’s  territories are still occupied by Armenia.

Those in Ankara calmed down while those in Yerevan got disappointed. Thanks to a successful diplomatic campaign by Azerbaijan and resistance within the Turkish society, Turkish authorities chose the right path. Turkey set liberating Azerbaijan’s several occupied regions as a condition under which the parliament will ratify the Zurich protocols.

It was a blow to policy of President Serzh Sargsyan who wants to draw great benefit from Turkish investments. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan firmly reiterated that it will be impossible for the Turkish parliament to ratify the protocols until Azerbaijan’s occupied lands are liberated. U.S. President Barack Obama has in vain tried to separate the two problems. Pressing from Baku was too explicit and obvious. So, the Turkish-Armenian diplomacy found itself in an impasse. This "misunderstanding" has become a key on backdrop of the original idyll.

Ankara set liberation of Azerbaijan’s several occupied lands at least as a term to ratify the protocols. In the meantime, Armenia-Turkey and Armenia-Azerbaijan talks were held. Azerbaijan’s position remains unchanged. Why should it change it?

President Serzh Sargsyan's indecisiveness has played a role in this case. The Armenian president is not an absolute leader for his state, nation and people. He is neither the first nor the last instance of decision-making. The Armenia president is a man who has illegally usurped the power and who is strongly dependent of all Armenians, patrons in Russia, assault of the opposition, terrorist acts of traditional Armenian groups and self-reactive inner circles.

Of course, it is naive to believe that Sargsyan is a person who has always been ready to cut the Gordian knot of regional problems in the South Caucasus. But it is already byword that he is a gambler. Sargsyan has decided to play which Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan is not ashamed to admit. Once in response to Dashnaks’ questions about the Turkey-Armenia protocols, he said they were signed upon Sargsyan’s order.

One should not surprise at Russia’s approval of the protocols. It seems the Kremlin could foresee Azerbaijan’s reaction predicting a protest both within Azerbaijan and the Turkish society.

Russia is still confident that the Zurich protocols are no more than a game for the audience. But U.S. State Department’s “knowledge” of the events was striking. The reality shows the State Department is not so competent at a game it has launched in the Caucasus. Washington needs to understand that the concept of "East is a delicate matter" exactly suits the Caucasus, especially its southern part.

Anyway, Serzh Sargsyan did what he was expected to do. The Armenian president has decided to make a precondition. Once the Turkish side links parliamentary ratification of the protocols to liberation of Azerbaijani lands, one must try to put a good face on things. The Turkish-Armenian rapprochement is vital for Yerevan as the economy is moribund and Russia's capital together with the Armenian Diaspora is unable even to make artificial respiration.

Recently it became known that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has ordered to amend laws on international treaties that will enable the country to withdraw signatures from international documents. Ph.D. in Law, expert on constitutional law Hrayr Tovmasyan stated this in Yerevan.

He said such a procedure is adopted in many countries and is a more aggressive step rather than refusal to ratify an international document, Mediamax reported.

Hrayr Tovmasyan said under the Vienna Convention on international treaties, which Armenia has also joined, it is impossible to add preconditions to the text of bilateral documents, specifically to the Armenian-Turkish protocols. He noted that Turkey is not party to this convention.

The so-called "withdrawal of signature" from an international treaty is applied when a signatory state which has not expressed its final consent to be bound by its regulations, take steps to withdraw from its obligations arising from signing of a treaty.

In accordance with international law, in particular the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, a signatory state is obliged to refrain from acts which would deprive the treaty from its target until it makes clear its intention not to become party to the treaty.

These comments were made by Russian Foreign Ministry official Mikhail Kaminin not about this particular case. But it does not matter.

As a whole, the world practice has a concept of withdrawal of signatures. But it is not clearly regulated and is rather situational. In this case a blackmail will be employed. Armenia will first ratify the Zurich protocols pressing Turkey to take a similar steps without liberating Azerbaijan’s occupied lands. If Turkey refuses to do so, Armenia will withdraw its signature and will appear as a suffered side before the world community. Armenians fail to understand that the world has stopped believing in bluff.

In recent days, there have been more and more predictions that a peace agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement will be signed soon. However, if Armenians play tricks with the Turks, to whom they will not dare to do something, and agree on future, their possible assurances of a desire to build a peaceful Caucasus with Azerbaijanis are not worth a pin.

Kanan Guluzade
Day.Az