Metro Canada

Turkey, Armenia sign historic accord after last-minute talks to
salvage pact

MATTHEW LEE, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 10, 2009 8:13 p.m.

ZURICH, Switzerland – Turkey and Armenia have signed a landmark
agreement to establish diplomatic relations and open their sealed
border after a century of enmity, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham 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.

"There were several times when I said to all of the parties involved
that this is too important," Clinton said. "This has to be seen
through. We have come too far. All of the work that has gone into the
protocols should not be walked away from."

The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers signed the accord in the
Swiss city of Zurich on Saturday 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 Barack Obama, and Clinton had flown to
Switzerland to witness the signing, not help close the deal.

Clinton told reporters travelling later on the plane with her to
London that both sides had problems with the other’s prepared
statement and that the Armenian foreign minister had to call his
president several times.

She said it became important just to approve the accord and not have
the sides make speeches that could be interpreted as putting legal
conditions on the document. She told each country that could be done
later, "but let the protocols be the statement because that was what
we were there to sign."

The accord is expected to win r
n 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 neighbourly 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 pressurin
to 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 centre 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 co-operation, no doubt, of Turkey to solve one
issue that pertains to a region which is in our neighbourhood," Solana
told AP Television News.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also was present for the
ceremony in Switzerland, whose d
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.

Yilmaz Ates of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party said
the country 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
ar said.

–

Associated Press Writers Alexander G. Higgins and Bradley S. Klapper
in Zurich, Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, and Christopher Torchia
in Istanbul contributed to this report.