Reuters
Oct 31 2009

Armenia rejects Turkish demand on rebel region

Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:32pm IST
By Matt Robinson and Margarita Antidze

YEREVAN (Reuters) – Armenia’s foreign minister has rejected Turkish
calls for concessions in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh in
exchange for the historic rapprochement between Yerevan and Ankara.

Speaking to Reuters late on Friday, Edward Nalbandian said
negotiations between Turkey and Armenia were over and both sides were
obliged to move quickly to establish diplomatic relations and open
their border under accords signed this month.

Turkish leaders say they want to see progress in negotiations between
Armenia and Turkish ally Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh before
parliament in Ankara ratifies the accords, a link Armenia rejects.

"Why did we sign two protocols if we are not going to ratify and
implement them?" Nalbandian, 53, said in an interview in the Armenian
capital, Yerevan.

"I think the whole international community is waiting for quick
ratification and implementation and respect for the agreements which
are in the protocols," he said, speaking in English.

"If one of the sides will delay and create some obstacles in the way
of ratification and implementation, I think it could bear all the
responsibility for the negative consequences."

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
fellow Muslim Azerbaijan in its war with Armenian-backed ethnic
Armenians in the mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Former Soviet Armenia and NATO-member Turkey have no diplomatic ties,
but a relationship haunted by the World War One killing of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks, a defining element of Armenian national identity.

But after a year of negotiations, Armenia and Turkey this month signed
accords looking to bury a century of hostility.

"SEPARATE PROCESSES"

The deal has encountered opposition in both countries, but full
rapprochement and an open border carries huge significance for
Turkey’s clout as a regional power, for its bid to join the European
Union and for landlocked Armenia’s crisis-hit economy.

But Ankara’s Turkic-speaking ally Azerbaijan has reacted angrily,
fearing it will lose leverage over Armenians in their conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh. The dispute threatens to tilt energy policy in
Azerbaijan, a supplier of oil and gas to the West through Turkey but
which is also being courted by Russia.

Diplomats and analysts say Turkey, before it ratifies the accords, is
seeking at least a small sign of progress in negotiations between
Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, where a fragile
ceasefire has held since 1994 but a peace deal has never been agreed.

Such a link is political dynamite for Armenians. The domestic
opposition and Armenia’s huge and influential diaspora say Turkey must
first recognise last century’s killings as genocide before ties can be
restored.

Nalbandian said the Armenian-Turkish thaw and the Nagorno-Karabakh
negotiations were "two separate processes."

"This is not only the Armenian approach but the approach of the
international community," he said, adding that negotiations between
Turkey and Armenia were over.

"Negotiations were finalised at the beginning of February."
Analysts are uncertain how firm the Turkish condition for ratification
really is, and say pressure on Ankara could mount with next April’s
95th anniversary of the killings, when the U.S. president
traditionally issues a statement of commemoration.

Armenia says the killings were genocide, and wants U.S. President
Barack Obama to stick to an election campaign pledge to say the same.
Turkey rejects the term, saying many people died on both sides of the
conflict.

Mediators from the United States, Russia and France say they are
making progress towards a peace deal on Nagorno-Karabakh in talks
between Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijan’s Ilham
Aliyev.

But Nalbandian played down talk of an imminent breakthrough.

There is a "positive dynamic", he said. "But to say that tomorrow or
in one month’s time or in a very short period of time we will come to
the agreement, I don’t think this is very serious."

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress