YEREVAN (ArmeniaNow.com)–As expected, the Constitutional Court of Armenia has ruled that the Armenian-Turkish protocols on establishing diplomatic ties and bilateral relations are in accordance with the Armenian Constitution. The Court issued its finding after five hours of deliberations held behind closed-doors Tuesday afternoon.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun, which organized a picket outside the Constitutional Court’s building, announced its disagreement with the court ruling.

Armen Rustamyan, representative of the ARF Executive Council of Armenia, says that the first anti-constitutional term of the protocols is that the preconditions mentioned in the protocols threaten the security of Armenia.

“It is also anti-constitutional that all the discussions were held behind closed doors,” he added.

Eduard Sharmazanov, press secretary of the governing Republican Party, said the Armenian government is not going to cast doubt on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and that nothing is going to threaten the security of Nagorno-Karabakh – as has been predicted by opponents of the protocols.

After the publication of the Constitutional Court verdict, Sharmazanov singled out three points in the long verdict. The first is that the protocols correspond to the Constitution, that the Court cited the Independence Declaration that clearly mentions the importance of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and that the protocols concern only their immediate signatories — Armenia and Turkey.

Both ARF and Republican Party agreed only on one point in the Constitutional Court findings — that the protocols concern only Armenia and Turkey and no third party is entitled to have influence in their application.

Dashnaktsutyun said they were going to continue their struggle against the protocols at the National Assembly where they will seek, at least, “ratification of the protocols with reservations.”