Official Yerevan says complaints of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey over the verdict of the Constitutional Court of Armenia (on the Armenian-Turkish protocols made on January 12), and the accusations that Armenia is imposing preconditions, are an attempt to blame Armenia for impeding the protocol process.

Earlier this week, the Foreign Ministry of Turkey – referring to language in the Court ruling that used the word “genocide” -- spread a statement saying that the verdict of Constitutional Court of Armenia (that the Armenian-Turkish protocols are corresponding to the Constitution) has “preconditions and limiting terms, which contradict to the letter and spirit of the protocols.”

“The verdict of the Constitutional Court threatens the main essence of the negotiations over the protocols, as well as their fundamental objective. This approach cannot be accepted by us,” the statement says. “Turkey, being loyal to its international obligations, keeps on being loyal to the primary terms of the protocols, and it expects the same devotion from the Armenian Government.”

The foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia had a phone conversation regarding the Armenian constitutional Court decision. However the spokesman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry Tigran Balayan refused to relay details of the conversation to ArmeniaNow, saying that the ministry will provide comments later on.

On January 19, responding to the above mentioned statement, Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan said, “I hope that by this statement Turkey does not try to justify its endless attempts of presenting preconditions and to hide the irrelevant delay of the process of the protocols ratification.”

However, Armenian political experts do not have such hopes, and they are sure that Turkey made such a statement to convince the international community that the delay of the protocols ratification process is not through its fault.

“This is simply a method of laying one’s blame on someone else. The motivation was the verdict of the Constitutional Court, nothing more,” political expert, expert in Turkish studies Artak Shakaryan told ArmeniaNow.

Turkey is concerned about the verdict reference to Article 11 of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia. (It says that the Republic of Armenia supports the recognition of the Armenian Genocide committed in Ottoman Turkey and the Western Armenia, in 1915.)

However, Giro Manoyan, director of the International Secretariat of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) Bureau in Yerevan, says that these grounds will have no influence, unless the National Assembly of Armenia ratifies the protocols with the same reservations.

“Even if the ratification refers to the verdict of the Constitutional Court (where these grounds are included), it will not be enough. And this evidently shows that Turkey simply wants to lay its own blame on Armenia in order to justify itself in front of the international community,” Manoyan concludes.