TURKEY BACKTRACKS AGAIN, RESTATES PRECONDITIONS FOR LIFTING OF ARMENIA BLOCKADE

4/turkey-backtracks-again-restates-preconditions-f or-lifting-of-armenia-blockade/
October 14, 2009

WASHINGTON-Less than 24 hours after the signing of the controversial
Turkey-Armenia protocols, Turkey’s top leaders outlined their
preconditions to the opening of the Turkey-Armenia border, connecting
the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict to Ankara’s willingness
to lift its illegal blockade of Armenia, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA).

"Once again, Turkey’s leaders have made it abundantly clear, most
recently in their public pledge to keep their blockade in place until
Azerbaijan agrees to its lifting, that the protocols represent simply
another vehicle for them to impose pressure on Yerevan and secure
concessions from the Armenian people," said ANCA executive director
Aram Hamparian. "The Obama Administration, rather than continuing
to lean on Armenia to accept agreements that threaten her security
and cast doubt on the Armenian Genocide, should call out Turkey for
its cynical and transparent manipulation of the protocols process to
advance its anti-Armenian policies."

According to the Wall Street Journal and hundreds of similar reports,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his ruling
Justice and Development Party on Sunday that "as long as Armenia has
not withdrawn from Azerbaijani territory that it is occupying, Turkey
cannot have a positive attitude on this subject [border opening]."

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported that Erdogan had
assured Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that "further progress
in the Karabagh peace process will be a determining factor in the
consideration by the Turkish Parliament of the Turkish-Armenian
agreements." RFE/RL also reported that a Turkish Embassy press
statement was even more explicit: "As our country’s prime minister
repeatedly stated in his earlier statements, the opening of the
Turkish-Armenian border will be impossible as long as the occupied
Azerbaijani territories are not liberated. … The opening of the
border is quite a lengthy process… This process must run parallel to
the process of resolving the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict and liberating
the occupied Azerbaijani territories."

The ANCA joined with Armenians around the world in opposing the
Turkey-Armenia protocols, citing, among other reservations, Turkey’s
efforts to use the document to tilt the Karabagh negotiations in
favor of Azerbaijan, as well as to establish a "historical commission"
that would question the historical truth of the Armenian Genocide.

Upon the signing of the document, ANCA chairman Ken Hachikian
commented, "President Obama, rather than honoring his pledge to
recognize the Armenian Genocide, went in exactly the opposite
direction, applying the full force of our nation’s diplomacy to
twist the arm of a landlocked and blockaded Armenia-a nation still
struggling with the brutal legacy of its near-destruction-into
accepting a dangerous set of protocols that call into question this
very crime against humanity."

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian is set to travel to Turkey on
Oct. 14 to attend a soccer match between the two countries.

The agenda will reportedly include discussion of the protocols
ratification process.