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YEREVAN—Thousands marched Monday to Armenia’s
Constitutional Court during a demonstration organized by the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation, urging the high court to
invalidate the documents.
The Constitutional Court is scheduled to
begin hearings on the Armenia-Turkey protocols to rule whether
they conform with the Armenian Constitution, before they are
submitted to the National Assembly for ratification.
The key contentions are the preconditions
inherent within the documents, the approval of which will only
benefit Turkey and severely curtail Armenia’s ability to push
forward a national agenda based on national interests.
The ARF contends that the protocols, in their
current format, would hinder the process of garnering
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, force
Armenia into recognizing the current Armenia-Turkey borders and
bind the resolution of the Karabakh conflict with the
normalization process.
The demonstrators, bearing torches and the
signs reading “No to the Protocols” marched to the
Constitutional Court building, where they submitted a nine-page
letter delineating their demands from the court.
Among the speakers were Chairman of the ARF
Supreme Council of Armeina, Armen Rustamian, member of the ARF
parliamentary bloc Hrair Karapetian, Armenian Deomcratic League
(Ramkavar-Azatakan Party of Armenia) representative Harutyun
Arakelyan and Chairman of the New Times Party Aram Karapetyan.
The leaders of the Heritage Party attended the rally as well.
Rustamian explained that the main objective
of the demonstration and the petition is to provide a way out of
the protocols, saying that the Constitutional Court had the
right to express its objections to the protocols.
He said that must recognize that the
protocols, in their current state, veer from main points of the
Armenian Constitution. He added, that if the Court did not heed
the demonstrators’ call, then it will be up to the parliament to
reject the protocols.
Chairman of the ARF’s parliamentary bloc and
a Bureau member Vahan Hovanessian met with Constitutional Court
Chairman Gagik Harutunian late last month to discuss the
hearings and present the party’s concern
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