Turkey, Armenia Agree To Restore Diplomatic Ties
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NPR
October 10, 2009
Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark agreement Saturday to establish
diplomatic relations and open their sealed border after a century of enmity,
as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton helped the two sides clear a
last-minute snag.
The contentious issue of whether the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians
during the final days of the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide is only
hinted at in the agreement.
The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers signed the accord in the Swiss
city of Zurich after a dispute over the final statements they would make. In
the end, the signing took place about three hours later than scheduled and
there were no spoken statements.
Clinton and mediators from Switzerland intervened to help broker a solution,
U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity, in keeping with State
Department regulations. Better ties between Turkey, a regional heavyweight,
and poor, landlocked Armenia have been a priority for President Obama, and
Clinton had flown to Switzerland to witness the signing, not help close the
deal.
The accord is expected to win ratification from both nations’ parliaments
and could lead to a reopening of their border within two months. It has been
closed for 16 years.
But nationalists on both sides are still seeking to derail implementation of
the deal.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the signing a "historic decision"
that "constitutes a milestone toward the establishment of good neighborly
relations," spokeswoman Michele Montas said in New York.
American officials said Clinton; the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, Philip
Gordon; and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey were engaged in
furious high-stakes shuttle diplomacy with the Turkish and Armenian
delegations to resolve the differences.
Diplomats said the Armenians were concerned about wording in the Turkish
statement that was to be made after the signing ceremony at University of
Zurich and had expressed those concerns "at the last minute" before the
scheduled signing ceremony.
Clinton had arrived at the ceremony venue after meeting separately with the
Turks and Armenians at a hotel, but abruptly departed without leaving her
car when the problem arose.
She returned to the hotel where she spoke by phone from the sedan in the
parking lot, three times with the Armenians and four times with the Turks.
At one point in the intervention, a Swiss police car, lights and siren
blazing, brought a Turkish diplomat to the hotel from the university with a
new draft of his country’s statement.
After nearly two hours, Clinton and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian met in person at the hotel and drove back to the university where
negotiations continued. It was not clear if there would be a resolution.
In the end, the Turks and Armenians signed an accord establishing diplomatic
ties that could reduce tensions in the troubled Caucasus region and
facilitate its growing role as a corridor for energy supplies bound for the
West.
The agreement faces nationalist opposition, and protests have been
particularly vociferous among the Armenian diaspora.
"The success of Turkey in pressuring Armenia into accepting these
humiliating, one-sided protocols proves, sadly, that genocide pays," said
Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America.
Major countries, however, expressed their support for the accord, with the
foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, France and the European
Union in the room to watch the much-delayed signing.
"No problem, they signed," quipped French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country was showing
"goodwill" to restore ties with Armenia. But he said Turkey was keen on
seeing Armenian troops withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-occupied
enclave in Azerbaijan that has been a center of regional tensions.
"We are trying to boost our relations with Armenia in a way that will cause
no hard feelings for Azerbaijan," Erdogan told reporters.
Armenian President Serge Sarkisian said his country was taking "responsible
decisions" in normalizing relations with Turkey, despite what he called the
unhealable wounds of genocide.
The agreement calls for a panel to discuss "the historical dimension" of the
killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. The
discussion is to include "an impartial scientific examination of the
historical records and archives to define existing problems and formulate
recommendations."
That clause is viewed as a concession to Turkey, which denies genocide,
contending the toll is inflated and that those killed were victims of civil
war.
"There is no alternative to the establishment of the relations with Turkey
without any precondition," said Sarkisian. "It is the dictate of the time."
Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, thanked Turkey, which is a
candidate for European Union membership.
"This is an important cooperation, no doubt, of Turkey to solve one issue
that pertains to a region which is in our neighborhood," Solana told AP
Television News.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also was present for the ceremony in
Switzerland, whose diplomats mediated six weeks of talks between Turkey and
Armenia to reach the accord. The signing took place in Zurich University’s
Churchill room, where Winston Churchill gave a speech in 1946.
Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel declined to comment on the
contentious issue of speeches but said the important thing was that the
accord was signed. He said Switzerland stood ready for further mediation, if
both Armenia and Turkey request it as both sides seek to implement the
accord and build on them.
A Turkish official, who was not authorized to speak and demanded anonymity,
said all sides were happy to dispense with the statements and that the
important thing was the signatures means the process can continue.
But Turkey’s Ahmet Davutoglu appeared the far happier top envoy as he smiled
broadly while posing for photographs and greeting the other foreign
ministers in attendance. Armenia’s Nalbandian, by contrast, only grudgingly
smirked as he shook Davutoglu’s hand.
Necati Cetinkaya, a deputy chairman of Turkey’s governing Justice and
Development Party, defended the deal, saying "sincere steps that are being
taken will benefit Turkey." He said Turkey is aiming to form friendly ties
with all its neighbors and could benefit from trade with Armenia.
But Yilmaz Ates of the main opposition Republican People’s Party said Turkey
should avoid any concessions.
"If Armenia wants to repair relations … then it should end occupation of
Nagorno-Karabakh. That’s it," Ates said Saturday.
About 10,000 protesters rallied Friday in Armenia’s capital to oppose the
signing, and a tour of Armenian communities by Sarkisian sparked protests in
Lebanon and France, with demonstrators in Paris shouting "Traitor!"
On the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Turks have close cultural and linguistic ties
with Azerbaijan, which is pressing Turkey for help in recovering its land.
Turkey shut its border with Armenia to protest the Armenian invasion of
Nagorno-Karabakh in 1993.
Turkey wants Armenia to withdraw some troops from the enclave area to show
goodwill and speed the opening of their joint border, but Armenia has yet to
agree, said Omer Taspinar, Turkey project director at the Brookings
Institution in Washington.
"We may end up in a kind of awkward situation where there are diplomatic
relations, but the border is still closed," Taspinar said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
