Armenia: Armenian President Withdraws Protocols On Relations With Turkey

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Armenian President Withdraws Protocols On Relations With Turkey 

By RFE/RL's Armenian Service
February 16, 2015

YEREVAN -- Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has recalled from parliament protocols on the normalization of ties and the establishment of diplomatic relations with neighboring Turkey.

In a statement issued on February 16, Sarkisian said he had asked parliament speaker Galust Sahakian to return the protocol to him since "the Turkish government has no political will, distorts the spirit and letter of the protocols, and continues its policy of setting preconditions."

Sarkisian also said that on the eve of commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian "genocide" in Ottoman Turkey during World War I, "the policy of denial and rewriting history" is getting a renewed impulse in Ankara.

Relations between Turkey and Armenia have been strained for years over their differing accounts of mass killings of Armenians.

The protocols to normalize Yerevan-Ankara ties were signed in Zurich on October 10, 2009.