Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has acted upon his promise to suspend the ratification process for the historical normalization agreements between Yerevan and Ankara unless Turkey stops advancing preconditions for the validation of the deal in its parliament. But he stressed that “Armenia shall retain her signature under the Protocols, because we desire to maintain the existing momentum for normalizing relations, because we desire peace.” In a televised address to the nation aired by the Armenian Public TV Thursday night, Sargsyan said: (as per the text of his statement released by his press service): “We have made clear to the whole world that our position is nothing but firmly constructive. We have stated that, if Turkey ratified the Protocols, as agreed, without preconditions and in a reasonable timeframe, failure by the Armenian Parliament to ratify them would be precluded.

”Now, the time has come to gauge the notion of a “reasonable timeframe” and whether a conduct is “without preconditions.” These criteria were set forth by not only Armenia, but also all the mediators involved in the process, all of our international partners.

“For a whole year, Turkey’s senior officials have not spared public statements in the language of preconditions. For a whole year, Turkey has done everything to protract time and fail the process. Hence, our conclusion and position are straightforward:

1. Turkey is not ready to continue the process that was started and to move forward without preconditions in line with the letter of the Protocols.

2. The reasonable timeframes have, in our opinion, elapsed. The Turkish practice of passing the 24th of April at any cost is simply unacceptable.

3. We consider unacceptable the pointless efforts of making the dialogue between Armenia and Turkey an end in itself; from this moment on, we consider the current phase of normalization exhausted.”

Sargsyan reminded that during this whole period he has discussed and continues discussing the future of the process with Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Barack Obama of the United States, Dmitri Medvedev of Russia and others in a number of European organizations. “We are grateful to them for supporting our initiative, encouraging the process, and exerting efforts to secure progress. The matter of the fact is that our partners have urged us to continue the process, rather than to discontinue it. Out of respect for them, their efforts, and their sincere aspirations, we have decided after consulting our Coalition partners and the National Security Council not to exit the process for the time being, but rather, to suspend the procedure of ratifying the Protocols. We believe this to be in the best interests of our nation,” Sargsyan emphasized.

“Armenia shall retain her signature under the Protocols, because we desire to maintain the existing momentum for normalizing relations, because we desire peace. Our political objective of normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey remains valid, and we shall consider moving forward when we are convinced that there is a proper environment in Turkey and there is leadership in Ankara ready to reengage in the normalization process,” he added.

(Read the full text of President Sargsyan’s address here: http://www.president.am/events/news/eng/?id=983 )

Earlier on Thursday, Sargsyan’s ruling Republican Party and its two junior coalition partners issued a joint statement announcing that the two Armenia-Turkey protocols signed last October and awaiting parliamentary ratifications in the two countries’ parliaments will be removed from the discussions agenda of the Armenian legislature “until the Turkish side is ready for the continuation of the process without preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe.”

The Armenian parliament’s majority, in particular, cited repeated attempts by Turkish officials to link the ratification of the protocols (which pave the way for an open border and diplomatic relations between the two historical foes) with a [pro-Azerbaijani] resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The coalition parties said such a linkage is “unacceptable.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has repeatedly assured Turkey’s regional ethnic ally Azerbaijan that Ankara will not ratify the protocols until progress is made in the Karabakh settlement, said shortly before Sargsyan’s address (but after the announcement of the Armenian coalition’s decision) that his country remains committed to the agreement to normalize ties with Armenia.

“It is up to them to decide how they want to move with the ratification process. I have expressed our loyalty to the protocols on numerous occasions. We will press ahead with the process on the principle that treaties are binding,” the Associated Press quoted Erdogan as saying at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.

“We are evaluating the content of this statement and what it means legally and politically,” Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin, for his part, told AFP news agency. “In this context, we are also discussing steps that could be taken in the coming period.”