WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE THREE-HOUR DELAY

Asbarez
hat-happened-during-the-three-hour-delay/
Oct 12th, 2009

ZURICH (DPA)-There was a three-hour delay to the signing of the
Turkey-Armenia protocols on Saturday and diplomats were shuttling back
and forth frantically to salvage what appeared to be a threatened deal
– but in the end Armenia and Turkey were finally able to sit down and
sign a deal that paves the way for full diplomatic and trade relations.

"We knew this was not going to be a walk in the park," said one Western
diplomat, two hours after the signing ceremony in Zurich was supposed
to have begun.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to work, using her phones,
running between buildings and rooms and forcing motorcades to
do U-turns. Along with Swiss diplomats, she was eager to solve
eleventh-hour disputes over language in speeches for the ceremony.

Meanwhile, the other guests – including Sergei Lavrov and Bernard
Kouchner, the Russian and French foreign ministers – were sitting
together, watching the World Cup qualification football match between
Germany and Russia, and missing their flights.

For the Swiss, who mediated the talks and now wanted to host a historic
signing of diplomatic ties between countries with generations of
animosity towards each other, it became a turbulent ride.

But the Alpine diplomatic efforts paid off, being backed by the
muscle and commitment of the US. Clinton even drove the Armenian
Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian to the University of Zurich,
where the signing was to take place, pushing him to compromise.

After more negotiations at the university, the sides agreed: Cancel
the speeches, sign the papers and move on. And so it was.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey made the briefest of
introductions, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Nalbandian
of Armenia inked the appropriate places, hands were shaken, a few hugs,
some smiles and everyone ran for their planes.

"There were several times when I said to all of the parties involved
that this is too important, that this has to be seen through. You
have come too far, all of the work that has gone into the protocols,
you know, should not be walked away from," Clinton recalled on her
plane from Zurich to London.

The protocols call for the renewal of diplomatic ties, opening of
the common border and establishment of a historical commission to
investigate the Armenian Genocide, but for a time diplomats worried
they would not be signed.

The Armenians opposed Turkish language in the speech that would have
connected the ratification of the protocols by the Turkish parliament
to a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict favoring Turkey’s
ally Azerbaijan.

In the West the issues are seen as separate but connected.

"Progress on one will help elicit further progress on the other,"
said one Western official. The deals are "separate, but moving forward
at the same time."

The Turks too were unhappy, even if to a lesser extent, about language
that referred to "historical events."

Turkish officials claimed the compromise to skip the speeches as their
own, with one diplomat saying: "We want to get the process moving."

Questions still hung heavy in the humid Zurich air after the
signing. The two countries could not deliver speeches side by side
and still required the world’s top diplomats to work overtime for
signatures on documents agreed to weeks in advance.

The road ahead is not smooth, even if a major hurdle has been
passed. It is now up for the two parliaments to ratify the deals,
leading to open borders within two months.