by Haig Kayserian

The signing of the Armenia-Turkey Protocols was due to take place at 2am (Australian EDT). As the hour approached, we learnt that due to Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmet Davutoglu wanting to reference Nagorno Karabakh in his post-signing address, Armenian counterpart Eduard Nalbandian refused to attend and sign.

LESSON 1 - Protests success

In the lead-up to October 10, over 100,000 Armenians in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Beirut, Montreal, Toronto, Sydney, Moscow and Yerevan gathered to protest the Protocols.

Armenian organisations around the world, led by major diaspora political parties, rallied to educate their communities about the potential dangers of these Protocols. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) went as far as calling for the head of Nalbandian for his failed diplomacy during the Protocols negotiation process.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan went on a carefully staged trip to diaspora communities, where he could not have a single meeting without hearing protestors outside accusing him of traitor-ship.

Both Sargsyan and Nalbandian put on a brave face to media. In one media appearance, despite 12,000 Los Angeles-Armenians yelling anti-Protocol chants for hours, Sargsyan took heart from a handful of supporters in a hotel function room and reported that more diaspora-Armenians support his actions than those who don't.

Despite the Administration's collective ‘brave face', the efforts of protestors came to fruition in Zurich some time before 2am (AEDT). Inside Nalbandian's head were the calls for his resignation, the chants of protestors, the insistence of political figures inside and outside Armenia that a pro-Azerbaijani Nagorno Karabakh resolution is a precondition to normalising relations with Turkey.

This last point was always met with stubborn denial. Sargsyan addressed his state on the day of the signing; reiterating Nagorno Karabakh is not part of this Protocols process at all. If Davutoglu mentioned Nagorno Karabakh in his post-signing address, it would have confirmed its status as a pre-condition.

So, under this pressure; under this cloud of pressure created by you dedicated protestors, Nalbandian blinked.

October 10 should have ended there. But it didn't.

LESSON 2 - Failed Armenian Diplomacy

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and, to a lesser extent, her Russian, French and Swiss counterparts, could not comprehend the PR disaster this 'routine' event was becoming. These fat cats were thinking... we fly all the way to Zurich for this and it doesn't happen!?!? We won't cop that!

Flexing her muscles, Clinton continued what has been a period of unconcealed bullying by her Administration on Armenia to sign these Protocols which favour their strategic ally in Turkey.

But, however sizeable those muscles are, nobody was expecting a u-turn within hours by Nalbandian. But, he ended up arriving to the signing ceremony in Clinton's motorcade and most watching events unfold knew something unprecedented was about to happen.

Negotiations of what the content of Davutoglu's post-signing statement will contain continued at the venue. Davutoglu clearly refused to change that content. Therefore Clinton and Co. convinced the Turkish Foreign Minister to make no statement at all.

And Nalbandian blinked again... he somehow agreed to this bogus compromise. At about 5am (AEDT), he forever etched his name into ‘failed diplomacy' folklore.

Nalbandian, representing the Sargsyan Administration, took the global Armenian community as fools when he slowly worked his way through the relevant paperwork and inked his signature on these Protocols. They thought we would overlook the following:

1. That preconditions do exist
If this signed document is ratified by the Armenian government, they agree that the Armenian Genocide becomes a historical issue instead of political and they agree that rightfully-Armenian lands in Eastern Turkey is part of Turkey's border.

2. That not saying does not mean not doing
Before the signing, Turkey's leadership repeatedly said Azerbaijan's interests in Nagorno Karabakh will need to be catered for in any normalisation process with Armenia.

Sargsyan and Nalbandian apparently did not hear these calls.

During the signing, it became clear Davutoglu wanted to make this a clear precondition again with his post-signing addres.

Sargsyan and Nalbandian were privy to this, but expected us to ignore the reasons behind the 3-hour delay in Zurich.

After the signing, we have again learned from Turkey's leadership of this precondition.

Sargsyan failed to address this on his 'football' visit to Turkey, where the Armenian President's keenness to do business with Turkey peaked when he celebrated both Turkish goals against the Armenian national team.

3. That they tried to gag us Armenians
In this information age, Armenians inside and outside Armenia will not be gagged. Regardless of what the Sargsyan Administration feeds world media, regardless of its protest bans in Yerevan, and regardless of its staged diaspora ‘non-listening' trips, Armenians have managed to alert one another and the world that these Protocols are rejected by the masses.

Zurich did teach Armenians that protests in the lead-up to the signing did work. Unfortunately, it also taught us that the current Administration in Armenia has thus far failed to properly represent the interests of its people on the global stage.

Haig Kayserian is the Communications Officer of the Armenian National Committee of Australia