TURKEY AND ARMENIA DRAW UP "ROAD MAP" TO MEND TIES

Tehran Times
April 24 2009
Iram

ANKARA/YEREVAN (Reuters) — Turkey and Armenia have agreed on a
road map to normalize ties after nearly a century of hostility, a
move quickly welcomed by the European Union and the United States,
but which could upset oil-rich Azerbaijan.

The deal, weeks after President Barack Obama urged Turkey to resolve
the issue, came on the eve of the commemoration of mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. The two states since last year
have held high-level talks to restore ties.

"The two parties have achieved tangible progress and mutual
understanding in this process and they have agreed on a comprehensive
framework for the normalization of their bilateral relations," the
foreign ministries of Turkey and Armenia said.

The statement gave few clues on how Turkey and Armenia planned to
tackle the sensitive dispute over the 1915 killings.

Turkish and Armenian government sources said the two sides had not
signed any document, but had agreed in principle to move ahead in
establishing normal relations, which would include reopening a border
shut in 1993.

But a senior Western diplomat said the roadmap commits the neighbors
to establishing diplomatic relations, opening their border gradually
and establishing commissions to tackle historical disputes over
"weeks or months".

"All the documents have been agreed in principle but it’s from the
signing that the clock starts ticking," the diplomat told Reuters. "It
is a finite period that is not very long. We are talking about weeks
or months."

Turkey accepts many Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman
Turks but denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it amounted
to genocide.

The years of stand-off have isolated impoverished Armenia and
obstructed Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union (EU).

"We welcome the progress in the normalization of relations between
Turkey and Armenia," a joint statement by EU Enlargement Commissioner
Olli Rehn and External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner
said.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan,
which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists in the breakaway
Nagorno-Karabakh region.

In public, Turkish officials reiterate they would normalize ties only
in parallel with a process to settle Nagorno-Karabakh.

Analysts have speculated an agreement, which has yet to receive final
approval, could contain "goodwill language" on Azerbaijan and the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute to placate Baku.

The deal was announced before Friday’s commemoration of Armenian
deaths, when U.S. presidents routinely issue a statement.

Reopening the border would boost Turkey’s profile as a peace broker
and give landlocked Armenia access to Turkish and European markets
but may hurt Europe’s energy security plans.

Azerbaijan, Europe’s key hope as a supplier of gas for the planned
multi-billion-dollar Nabucco pipeline that would run through Turkey
and cut Europe’s dependence on Russia, warned against any deal that
does not include a withdrawal of troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Opening the border could lead to tensions in the region and would be
contradictory to the interests of Azerbaijan," Azeri Foreign Ministry
spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said.

Polukhov said it was "too early" to discuss what steps Azerbaijan
might take in retaliation, but some analysts have warned it may affect
future sales of Azeri gas.

Washington urged Ankara and Yerevan to normalize ties "within a
reasonable timeframe".

"To us, that is a huge step. They’re basically saying that we’ve got
to move on from the past," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.