Republished in the USA Armenian Life Magazine weekly, #1188 January 9, 2009
Stepan Sargsyan
“ARARAT” Center for Strategic Research

For the first time during these latest negotiations surrounding the Armenian-Turkish conflict an Armenian official engaged in a public debate to defend the Protocols and fielded unscripted questions directly from the audience in Los Angeles. The U.S.-based Diaspora organization called ARPA Institute had organized a debate between the Honorable Consul General of the Republic of Armenia to Los Angeles Grigor Hovhannissian and two Diaspora academics. Dr. Richard Hovannisian moderated the debate. The Consul General deserves a lot of praise for agreeing to discuss the Armenian-Turkish conflict and the recently signed Protocols in such a public forum, despite the persistent efforts by his superiors in Armenia, namely President Serzh Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan, to avoid having any meaningful public discussion with the Armenian people regarding this issue. It must be noted that a lot of heartache and mistrust could have been avoided had these discussions been held prior to agreeing to the Roadmap and drafting the Protocols.
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