DELAY IN PROTOCOLS RATIFICATION PROCESS BY TURKEY IS NORMAL OCCURRENCE
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.11.2009 11:33 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Normalization of the Armenia-Turkey relations without
progress in the Karabakh settlement can harm Ankara’s relations with
Baku, states the report of Chatham House "Turkey, Russia and the
Caucasus: the common and conflicting interests".
According to the report, the war in August of 2008 adversely affected
the Armenian economy and therefore opening of the Armenian-Turkish
border, closed by Turkey in 1993, may be useful either for Armenia
or Georgia.
Chatham House believes that Turkey put forward preconditions for
Armenia to open the border: abandoning international recognition
of the Armenian Genocide and settlement of the Karabakh conflict on
terms favorable to Azerbaijan.
"After the August events Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan initiated
the start of "football diplomacy", resulted in signed protocols on
the establishment of the Armenia-Turkey diplomatic relations. This
initiative, contrary to some expectations, did not lead to Moscow’s
resistance, " the report said.
The report focuses also on Russian-Turkish relations. "Moscow supports
the Kurds and the Turks of Cyprus, where Russia can create an offshore
zone. British experts believe that the Russian-Turkish relations
correspond to overall political picture of the region.
According to Chatham House, despite current concerns, normalization
of Armenia-Turkey relations would unlikely lead to the weakening of
relations between Russia and Armenia, and on the other hand, cooling
of relations between Ankara and Baku.
British experts treated as normal the delay caused by Turkey of
the ratification of Armenian-Turkish Protocols. "Delays could have
serious consequences, since the Armenian authorities threatened to
abandon the process of reconciliation, if the protocol ratification
process is delayed," the report of Chatham House says.