Dashnak Party Withdraws from Armenian Government

The Dashnak Party, one of four parties in the Armenian coalition government, has withdrawn in protest of the roadmap of rapprochement agreed on by Turkey and Armenia.

Protest resignation

Arman Rüstemyan, president of the party’s high commission has said that there were “irreconcilable differences in opinion on foreign policy” in the government.

He added that his party opposed the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs signing an agreement with Turkey.

The party has 16 seats in Armenia’s 131-seat parliament and three ministers in government.

Turkey had severed diplomatic relations with Armenia after the latter occupied the Nagorno-Karabakh region within Azerbaijan. Since 1994, Armenia and Azerbaijan have not resolved the territorial dispute.

As far as Turkey and Armenia are concerned, there is the inevitable question as to how the countries will deal with past. There is strong disagreement on how to interpret the events of 1915, when over a million Armenians were killed in the last days of the Ottoman Empire.

Optimistic note by Sargasyan

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has stated that details of the road map will be made available to the public soon. “I am sure that the people will support the articles in the document.”

He added, “The stance of the Yerevan leadership is clear. There should be no more closed borders in 21st century Europe.”

Although Armenia and Turkey have not discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Sargsyan suggested that a normalisation in Turkish-Armenian relations “might contribute positively” towards a solution.

Members of the Armenia Security Council have approved of Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan’s report entitled “Dialogue with Turkey”. Rüstemyan from the Dashnak party was not present at that meeting.

Armenian-Azerbaijan meeting

Meanwhile, Bernard Fassier, OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, has announced that Sargsyan and Azerbaijan’s President İlhan Aliyev will meet in Prague on 7 May. The Minsk Group has been offering a forum for negotiations between the two countries since 1992.

The two leaders will meet at an EU Eastern Partnership summit in the Czech Republic, which is currently holding the presidency of the EU. (TK/AG)