YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Former Foreign Minister of Armenia, Director of the Civilitas Foundation Vartan Oskanian calls on the authorities not to sign the pre-signed Armenia-Turkey protocols, by which Turkey gets what it has been seeking in vain for 17 years, while not giving anything in return. At the September 22 public discussion held by the Civilitas Foundation, V. Oskanian declared that today the solution of domestic problems is more important to Armenia than the resolution of its external problems. Among domestic problems, he mentioned the establishment of democracy and the implementation of economic reforms in the country, also the elimination of the consequences of the March 1 events in Yerevan. "Without resolution of these problems, we will be too weak to deal with the complex task of opening the borders," the former foreign minister said, adding that during his term of office, Armenia was not a democratic country. In his words, the protocols issued on August 31 contain preconditions regarding both Karabakh and the Genocide recognition. He said the provision on recognition of the existing Armenian-Turkish borders is especially unacceptable because it deprives the Armenian people of the opportunity to assert their historical rights. "A lot of countries have territorial claims to each other, but it does not mean that they do not have diplomatic relations and open borders. We have territorial problems even with our friendly neighboring country Georgia. It is inadmissible to include the border recognition issue in the protocol," V. Oskanian noted. Member of the ARF Bureau Vahan Hovhannisian added that the word "border" is absent in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. V. Oskanian called for starting a "national movement" against the signing of Armenia-Turkey protocols and expressed a readiness to be in the first ranks of this movement. At the same time he stated that this call does not mean a demand for Serzh Sargsyan to step down.

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