DESPITE TURKEY’S PRECONDITIONS, ARMENIA STILL HOPEFUL ON UNCONDITIONAL TIES

rkeys-preconditions-armenia-still-hopeful-on-uncon ditional-ties/
May 18th, 2009

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Official Yerevan remains hopeful that Turkey will
agree to unconditionally normalize relations with Armenia, Foreign
Minister Eduard Nalbandian said over the weekend.

Speaking at an international conference on regional security issues
held in Yerevan, Nalbandian insisted that the governments of the two
nations have made substantial progress towards the opening of the
Turkish-Armenian border "without preconditions" in their fence-mending
negotiations.

"The ball is in the Turkish side now," he said. "And we hope that
they will find the wisdom and the courage to make the last decisive
step. We wish to be confident that the necessary political will can
eventually leave behind the mentality of the past."

The remarks came the day after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan once again made clear that his country will not establish
diplomatic relations and reopen the border with Armenia as long as
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unresolved. Erdogan explicitly
reaffirmed that linkage also during his visit to Azerbaijan earlier
in the week.

"Occupation of Karabakh is the cause here and closing of the border
is the effect. It is impossible for us to open the border unless that
occupation ends," he told a joint news conference with Azerbaijan’s
President Ilham Aliyev.

Nalbandian and President Serzh Sarkisian said on Thursday that such
statements can only undermine the Karabakh peace process. But they
declined to comment on implications of Erdogan’s stance for the
success of the year-long Turkish-Armenian rapprochement.

In his speech, Nalbandian described relations with Turkey and the
unresolved Karabakh conflict as the two main security challenges
facing Armenia. "These challenges are different, and by no means
interconnected, even if some would like to see a linkage or parallelism
in their resolution," he said.

The Armenian president is facing growing domestic criticism over
his conciliatory overtures to Ankara. The Armenian Revolutionary
Federation says Sarkisian has helped the Turks scuttle an official
U.S. recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide while failing to secure
the lifting of Turkey’s 16-year economic blockade of Armenia. The
government’s approach to the talks with Turkey, according to the ARF,
have also given Ankara a chance to manipulate the Nagorno-Karabakh
peace process by positioning itself as an actor in the negotiations.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Giro Manoyan, the ARF’s political
director, urged the Armenian authorities to pull out of talks
with Turkey before it is too late, stressing that it is becoming
increasingly evident that the so-called "roadmap" discussions with
Turkey are proceeding with preconditions, despite continuous claims
by the government of the contrary.

The Armenian leadership should immediately withdraw from the "roadmap"
talks and pursue a policy, vis-a-vis both Karabakh and Turkey,
that guarantees Armenian national interests and security, Manoyan
said, adding that Armenia should not fall prey to the fallacy that
if it pulls out from the talks it will lose credibility within the
international community.