Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 7. / Trend E.Tariverdiyeva
As a whole, it is still too early to speak about duration of impact that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and the world Armenian diaspora's confrontation will have, Director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS), Richard Giragosian, said.
"The real impact will depend on whether the Turkish parliament ratifies the protocols. That is the biggest test and it is still to come," Giragosian wrote to Trend via e-mail.
Earlier Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Trend in an exclusive interview that Turkey and Armenia will sign a deal to establish diplomatic ties on Oct. 10.
During his recent international visit, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met with representatives of Armenian diasporas in Europe, Argentina and the U.S, and many of them expressed their opposition to the signing of a Turkish-Armenian agreement.
The Armenian diaspora holds protests worldwide. Sargsyan faced these actions in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. The demonstrators met the Armenian president with slogans such as "Traitor!", "No protocols".
Several opposition parties in Armenia are also against Sargsyan's policy. Such meetingsare also held against signing of the protocols.
On Oct.6, rally was held in Yerevan to protest signing of protocols on development of relations with Turkey, Armenia Today said. The event was organized by the movement Miasum "(" Unity "). Protesters marched to the memorial dedicated to victims of so-called "genocide" of Armenians. There they burned copy of protocols in eternal fire, as well as a photo of President Serzh Sargsyan.
"When president Sargsyan was on an international visit, he was faced by a reaction from the Armenian diaspora. So what he does in face of the reaction of the diaspora is very important. If he can stand firm, and if it is the government of Armenia and not the Armenian diasporas that is determining policy in Armenia, then I think that we can move forward. As far as we're concerned there is no problem. But it is up to the government in Armenia," Erdogan said in an interview to The Wall Street Journal, Ria Novost reported.
According to Giragosian, the Armenian government has been largely driven by "desperation" for a foreign policy success, in order to distract attention away from its own domestic problems and deficiencies that arose in the wake of the country's unresolved post-election crisis.
But with the recent "tour" of the Armenian diapsora, President Sargsyan seems much more confident and ambitious in taking on the opponents to normalizing relations with Turkey.
"In this sense, Sargsyan is confronting the diaspora head-on and, so far, he seems to be succeeding in deflecting the criticism. Interesting, this is also resulting in a broad division between the diaspora and the Armenian government, which only seems to please Turkey," the director added.
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