Armenia-Turkey sign peace deal, pitfalls ahead

Reuters
Sat Oct 10, 2009 7:27pm EDT

By Zerin Elci and Jeff Mason

ZURICH (Reuters) – Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark peace accord on
Saturday to restore ties and open their shared border after a century of
hostility stemming from the World War One mass killing of Armenians by
Ottoman forces.

But in an indication of the many pitfalls that lie ahead of its
implementation, the ceremony was marred by a three-hour delay due to
last-minute disagreements on statements, forcing U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton to engage in intense discussions to salvage a deal.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart
Edward Nalbandian signed the Swiss-mediated deal in Zurich at a ceremony
also attended by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Russia’s
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and France’s Foreign Minister Bernard
Kouchner.

The Turkish and Armenian parliaments must now approve the deal in the face
of opposition from nationalists on both sides and a Armenian diaspora which
insists Turkey acknowledge the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians as
genocide.

If an agreement comes into effect, it would boost European Union candidate
Turkey’s diplomatic clout in the volatile South Caucasus, a transit corridor
for oil and gas to the West.

Before the deal was inked at the University of Zurich, Clinton returned to
her hotel to help smooth over objections with Nalbandian over statements to
be read at the ceremony.

She then held a long telephone call with Davutoglu before meeting
Nalbandian, with whom she returned to the venue in her motorcade hours later
in a night of high drama.

Clinton later promised the United States would do everything it could to
build on the "milestone" that Turkey and Armenia had achieved.

Clinton, who declared herself "very pleased" that the protocols had been
signed, said both countries had concerns that had delayed the signing
ceremony.

Ties between the two neighbors are traumatised by the deportations and mass
killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, and normalization efforts have been
hampered by a decades-old dispute between Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan and
Armenia over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey cut ties and shut its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of
Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan which was then fighting a losing battle against
Armenian separatists in Karabakh.

DISAGREEMENTS

Turkish officials told Reuters the two sides had many disagreements over
each others’ statements, including oblique references to the Karabakh
conflict. In the end, neither Davutolgu nor Nalbandian made public
statements.

The delay left Solana, Lavrov and Kouchner waiting for more than two hours
while the Americans met the Armenians at a nearby hotel in what Reuters
witnesses described as tense talks.

Organizers of Saturday’s ceremony, which capped months of negotiations, said
plans to play Handel’s soaring "Royal Fireworks" while the two ministers
signed the protocol, were canceled at the last minute.

A smiling Davutoglu and a stony-faced Nalbandian sat at a table to sign the
deal. Once they had put their signatures on several pages, they stood up and
shook hands to applause and exchanged hugs and handshakes with the other
ministers.

"Your political courage, your relentless efforts and your generous vision
has made this agreement possible," Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline
Calmy-Rey said.

The European Union welcomed the signing.

"The signature of the protocols confirms the desire of both Turkey and
Armenia to turn a page and build a new future. This opens new perspectives
for the solution of conflicts, notably in Nagorno-Karabakh," EU External
Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.

Although landlocked Armenia stands to make big gains, opening its
impoverished economy to trade and investment, Armenia’s leader Serzh
Sarksyan faces protests at home and from the huge Armenian diaspora, which
views the thaw with suspicion.

Armenians demand that Turkey acknowledge the 1915 killings as genocide, a
defining element in Armenian national identity.

"Any relations with Turkey cannot call into question that genocide was
committed against the Armenian people. This should be recognized and
condemned by humankind," Sarksyan said in a televised address before the
ceremony.

Under the deal, Turkey and Armenia will set up a commission of international
experts to study the events.

Nationalist lawmakers in Turkey have pledged to vote against the deal, and
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this year he would not open the
border until Yerevan ended what he called its occupation of Azerbaijan.

(Additional reporting by Katie Reid in Zurich, Hasmik Lazarian in Yerevan
and Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi; Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia; editing by
Robin Pomeroy)