President Serzh Sarkisian in October embarked on a whirlwind tour of the Armenian Diaspora in an effort to put a positive spin on his beleaguered rapprochement with Turkey.
Announced on the eve of the 94 anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian-Turkish roadmap to relations derailed efforts at gaining US recognition of the Armenian Genocide and put Armenia on a dangerous footing where it would be forced to concede national interests under Turkish and international pressures.
Sarkisian expected his quick run through of the largest of the Diaspora’s communities to quiet the growing opposition to the protocols and his regime spreading across the world. Instead, he was met with resounding rebuke in every community he visited.
Thousands of Armenians in Paris, New York, Los Angeles and Lebanon greeted the President with angry protests and calls for his resignation.
The heated demonstrations, which began in the Diaspora exploded on the scene in Armenia, leading more than 60,000 people to march through the streets of Yerevan against the protocols. A campaign many thought to be a futile pipe-dream, evolved into an international movement uniting the Armenian people around a common goal to stop the Turkey-Armenia protocols and change the corrupt system that brought the ill-fated agreements to fruition.
Though the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey signed the protocols on October 10, they have yet to be ratified, solidified or codified.
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