Nalbandian Was Not Yet Born When ARF-D Was Conducting Negotiations

A statement made by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has disgruntled Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, or ARF-D) Bureau member Vahan Hovhannisyan.

“The minister, in his typical style, said that those forces requiring his [Nalbandian’s] withdrawal are irresponsible and that they would have understood how difficult it was to carry out negotiations, should they have ever tried to conduct negotiations,” said Hovhannisyan at a press conference today.

“I want to mention that Dashnaktsutyun was conducting negotiations and was doing it successfully before Nalbandian was born or when he was born but was still attending school. There is no need to teach us how to carry negotiations. The minister thinks he has such special skills to conduct negotiations that others do not. While American colleagues have said during meetings that there are preconditions in the Protocols, which is acceptable for Armenia. If the skill to conduct negotiations is just saying ‘come here, please’ or ‘yes’ to everything, then we do not have that skill, we would’ve carry out negotiations in another way,” explained Hovhannisyan.

He also recalled that it was due to efforts by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau's Hay Dat (“Armenian Cause”) that the international approach to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide changed in Armenia’s favour.