DASHNAKS QUIT ARMENIA’S RULING COALITION
Emil Danielyan
Anush Martirosian
RFE/RL
27.04.2009
Armen Rustamian, announces the Amenian Revolutionary Federation’s
departure from the governing coalition on April 27, 2009.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) announced on
Monday its decision to pull out of Armenia’s governing coalition,
citing "insurmountable fundamental disagreements" with President
Serzh Sarkisian over his conciliatory policy toward Turkey. (UPDATED)
The three other parties represented in the government defended
that policy.
In a written statement, the Dashnaktsutyun leadership in Armenia
reiterated the nationalist party’s condemnation of an agreement on
the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations announced by the two
governments on Wednesday. "We also have fundamental disagreements
with the Armenian authorities’ position on some issues raised during
Armenia-Turkey negotiations," it said.
The dramatic move followed a Saturday meeting between Sarkisian and two
Dashnaktsutyun leaders, Hrant Markarian and Armen Rustamian. According
to the latter, Sarkisian briefed them on the essence of the still
unpublicized "roadmap" for gradually normalizing Turkish-Armenian
relations.
"The president’s explanations did not satisfy us," Rustamian said
on Monday.
Dashnaktsutyun strongly condemned the roadmap agreement just hours
after it was announced by the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministries
on the night from April 22-23. Earlier last week, Markarian publicly
lambasted Sarkisian’s year-long diplomatic overtures to Turkey, saying
that Yerevan has made major concessions to Ankara while failing to
secure the lifting the of the Turkish economic blockade of Armenia.
Rustamian echoed that criticism, saying that Armenia has effectively
ended its long-standing insistence on an unconditional establishment
of diplomatic relations and reopening of the border between the two
estranged nations. He claimed that Ankara continues to make that
conditional on a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and an
end to the decades-long campaign for worldwide recognition of the
1915-1918 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
"The Turks are now trying to turn those preconditions into conditions
and include them into a package [deal with Armenia,]" Rustamian told
a news conference. "For them the key thing is to exploit the process
of normalization and they are doing that very well," he said. "We
must realize that."
Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian insisted on Monday, however,
that the two sides are heading for a far-reaching settlement "without
preconditions," dismissing speculation that Ankara has tricked Yerevan
and the international community during year-long dialogue. "If Turkey
were to deceive us, it would first of all deceive itself, it would
deceive the international community, the United States, Russia, the
European Union," Nalbandian told the Armenpress news agency in an
interview. "I think we have the impression that Turkey’s government
also has a desire to move forward and normalize relations between
the two countries," he added.
Nalbandian declined to divulge any details of the announced "roadmap,"
saying only that it contains "no provisions and principles" and is a
mere "time guideline for steps to be taken by the parties." "Provisions
and principles will be contained only in an agreement or agreements
that are due to be signed by the two sides," he said
Artur Baghdasarian, secretary of Armenia’s National Security Council,
indicated on Saturday that the roadmap will not be disclosed to
the public before the signing of such an agreement. He spoke to
journalists after a meeting of the body advising Sarkisian on national
security. The latest developments in Turkish-Armenian dealings were
high on the meeting’s agenda.
According to Turkish and Western media, one of the key points of
the announced deal is the creation of a commission of historians
that would look into the 1915 massacres and determine whether they
indeed constituted a genocide. The Turkish government has for years
been advocating such a study.
In an April 22 interview with "The Wall Street Journal," Sarkisian
effectively confirmed that he has agreed to the Turkish proposal.
In a clear reference to this commission, Rustamian said that the
Turkish-Armenian understandings could deter more countries of the world
from officially recognizing the Armenian genocide. "We must never
allow the replacement of the process of international recognition
by efforts to force Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide," he
said. "One process should not suspend the other." "Nobody here doubts
that Turkey will do everything to avoid recognizing the Armenian
genocide," added the Dashnaktsutyun leader.
Rustamian, who heads the Armenian parliament’s committee on foreign
relations, confirmed that Dashnaktsutyun’s departure from the
four-party coalition government means all members of the party holding
senior positions in the executive and legislative branches must now
tender their resignations. "That process has already begun," he said.
In accordance its March 2008 power-sharing agreement, Dashnaktsutyun
has been represented in Sarkisian’s four-party coalition cabinet by
three ministers and several deputy ministers. The influential party
also holds 16 seats in the 131-member National Assembly.
Its exit will still leave Sarkisian with a comfortable majority in
the parliament. His Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) alone controls
at least half of the parliament seats.
In a joint statement released on Monday, the HHK and its two remaining
coalition partners, the Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and Orinats Yerkir
parties, said they "respect" Dashnaktsutyun’s decision but believe
that the rapprochement with Turkey is good for Armenia. "We welcome
President Serzh Sarkisian’s steps aimed at the normalization of
Turkish-Armenian relations without preconditions and within reasonable
time frames," they said. That policy will not undermine efforts at
greater international recognition of the genocide or lead to more
Armenian concessions to Azerbaijan, added the statement.
Still, the BHK leader, Gagik Tsarukian, was highly skeptical about
the success of the Turkish-Armenian dialogue. "My personal view is
that this is a game and that Turkey will not open the border," he
told journalists.
Tsarukian, who is believed to be close to the more hardline former
President Robert Kocharian, also said that Dashnaktsutyun’s pullout
will "weaken" the ruling coalition. "How can we underestimate
Dashnaktsutyun?" he said.
But Galust Sahakian, the HHK’s parliamentary leader, disagreed with
that assertion. He also denied that Dashnaktsutyun was kept in the
dark about all details of Turkish-Armenian negotiations and downplayed
the significance of the resulting "roadmap."
Armen Ashotian, another senior HHK lawmaker, claimed that those
nego tiations were only a pretext for Dashnaktsutyun to leave the
government and try to win more votes in the next presidential and
parliamentary elections.
"Experience has shown that the pro-government electorate fails to live
up to Dashnaktsutyun’s expectations in terms of the number of votes,"
he told RFE/RL.
The coalition leaders said they have yet to discuss who will take up
the vacant government posts held by Dashnaktsutyun until now. "The
president of the republic will decide that," said Tsarukian.
The end of Dashnaktsutyun’s decade-long presence in government was
hailed by Zharangutyun party, the hitherto sole opposition force in
the National Assembly. "Welcome to the opposition!" its top leader,
Raffi Hovannisian, told RFE/RL. He said Zharangutyun is ready to
cooperate with Dashnaktsutyun.
The other major opposition force, the Armenian National Congress
(HAK) had no comment on the development. Both the HAK and
Zharangutyun demanded late last week the immediate disclosure of the
Turkish-Armenian roadmap.
The Dashnaktsutyun statement said that the party, which is particularly
influential in the worldwide Armenian Diaspora, will now position
itself as a "full-fledged alternative" to the country’s leadership
and try to "counterbalance and restrain" the Sarkisian administration.
Rustamian also made clear that unlike the HAK, Dashnaktsutyu n will
not seek to topple Sarkisian or force pre-term national elections
for the time being.