YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Constitutional Court's decision on the Armenia-Turkey protocols is consonant with the statements that the Armenian president made in Armenia, in large Armenian colonies of the Diaspora, as well as in his addresses to the Armenian people. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said this in an interview with Radio Liberty, considering as nonsensical the claim that the CC took its decision under pressure of some political forces opposing the protocols. In response to the question about whether Turkey shows a tendency to delay the protocol ratification process until April and later, the minister replied: "I do not think it is correct to divide the time into "until April" and "after April". I am sure that they in Turkey understand that April 2010 is not the last April of the world". "If Turkey takes a step backward, it will be a violation of its agreements with Armenia, and it will also become obvious that Turkey shows disrespect for the international community, and Turkey will lose the trust others have in it, with all stemming consequences. Whereas Armenia will not lose what we had prior to this process," E. Nalbandian said. In his words, Turkish and Armenian leaders dicussed only problems related to the Armenian-Turkish bilateral relations. "There is no other problem on the agenda," E. Nalbandian said, reaffirming the Armenian authorities' position that they have never called and will not call in question the fact of the Armenian Genocide and the importance of its international recognition. The foreign minister stressed that as regards the Genocide's international recognition, he does not see any sharp turn or change compared with the political line of second president Robert Kocharian.

---