OBAMA THANKS CLINTON FOR "RESCUING" SIGNATURE OF ARMENIA-TURKEY PROTOCOLS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
12.10.2009 10:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
basked in a glow of praise from her Nobel laureate boss on Saturday
after spearheading successful efforts to salvage historic accords
between longtime bitter foes Turkey and Armenia.

President Barack Obama, who a day earlier was the surprise winner
of the Nobel Peace Prize, telephoned Clinton in Switzerland to
congratulate her on overcoming a last minute-hitch that threatened
to scuttle the Turkish-Armenian deals, a senior U.S. State Department
official said.

Clinton was headed to the airport in the Swiss city of Zurich following
an intense and frantic day of negotiations when she got the call
from Obama, the official said. The official spoke on condition of
anonymity because the call was private.

"He was very excited, he felt like this was a big step forward and
wanted to check in," the official told reporters aboard Clinton’s plane
as she flew from Zurich to London, the second leg of a five-day tour
of Europe and Russia. "He called to congratulate her and the team."

"We had a good night in Zurich," Clinton said on the plane.

Having come merely to witness Saturday’s signing, Clinton instead
became embroiled in a dramatic turn of events that began when both
sides balked at signing agreements on establishing diplomatic relations
and opening their sealed border after a century of enmity.

Both had objections to language in statements each side wanted to
read after signing the deals, concerns that burst into the open just
minutes before the ceremony was to begin at the University of Zurich
in the shadow of Switzerland’s snowcapped Alps.

Clinton’s motorcade had just arrived at the venue when it abruptly
turned around and returned to the luxury hotel where she had met
separately earlier with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

There she spoke by phone from the sedan in the parking lot, three
t e Armenians and four times with the Turks. At one point, a Swiss
police car, lights and siren blazing, brought a new draft of the
Turkish statement from the university to the hotel for review.

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 in the presence of Swiss and European
mediators and the foreign ministers of Russia and France.

About an hour later, Clinton and the others brokered a compromise
under which no statements would be read at the ceremony.

She said she had repeatedly impressed on the Turks and the Armenians
that the agreements, known as protocols, that had been negotiated
over months were too important not to be signed now. The protocols,
she said, should speak for themselves without additional statements.

"We just kept making our points," she said, referring to herself
and the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, Philip Gordon. "This needed to
be done."

"It’s just what you sign up for," Clinton said of her role. "When
you are trying to help people resolve long-standing problems between
themselves, it is a very challenging process."

To take effect the agreements must be ratified by the Turkish and
Armenian parliaments, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress