RFE/RL reports that the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutiun, one of the three political parties that form the coalition government here, says that it has not relinquished territorial claims on the neighboring Republic of Turkey.

“The current government of which we are a part and the president whom we have supported and will support will not abandon territorial claims,” Giro Manoyan, a spokesman for the nationalist party’s ruling Bureau, said. “Armenia’s official position is that the issue is not on our foreign policy agenda. That means it can be on the agenda tomorrow.”

According to the report, although the Armenian Foreign Ministry says that it recognizes the existing Turkish-Armenian border defined by the 1921 Treaty of Kars, Manoyan says that it would be political suicide for any government to abandon claims on territory cleansed of its Armenian population during the 1915 Genocide.

“No Armenian government can do that because I believe the Armenia people would not allow that government to remain in power,” Manoyan said during a roundtable discussion in Yerevan.

Successive governments, as well as the current President Robert Kocharian and his predecessor Levon Ter Petrosian, have been quick to dismiss Turkish fears that Armenia might one day demand territorial reparations in the event of official acknowldgement of the Genocide by Ankara. Many believe that financial compensation and the return of Church property might be a more likely outcome.

“Genocide recognition by Turkey will not lead to legal consequences for territorial claims,” Kocharian said at the time. “The problem is that those events have taken place in Turkey, and the Republic of Armenia did not exist at that time, and today’s Republic of Armenia is not the heir to those lands,” he added.

[…]

But according to Manoyan, the Armenian leader simply stated that “there is no such issue on the agenda of Armenian foreign policy today.” “The president also said genocide recognition would not automatically result in territorial claims,” he said, denying any disagreements on the issue between Kocharian and Dashnaktsutyun.

Manoyan revealed last summer that the party, which also has chapters in major Armenian communities abroad, plans a major shift in its long-running campaign for international recognition of the Armenian genocide. He said Dashnaktsutyun will strive to force Turkey to pay reparations.

The full news item can be read online here.