Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Nov 21 2009
Armenia says no further talks with Turkey unless protocols ratified
Armenia and Turkey will hold no further major negotiations unless the
national parliaments of the two countries ratify two protocols on
normalization of bilateral relations, an Armenian Foreign Ministry
official was quoted as saying yesterday.
Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that
`we are now waiting for the ratification, as each country has its own
ratification procedures.’
Turkey and Armenia signed the two protocols on Oct. 10 in Zurich to
reopen their borders, closed since 1993, and restore diplomatic
relations. The documents need to be ratified in the Turkish and
Armenian parliaments to enter into force. But Turkish leaders have
suggested that their parliament is unlikely to ratify the agreements
without a breakthrough in international efforts to resolve the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Armenia rejects any linkage between efforts to normalize relations
with Turkey and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan are to hold talks on Sunday on
Nagorno-Karabakh, raising hopes for progress in 15-year efforts to
resolve the conflict.
The French Foreign Ministry, in a statement it issued on Thursday,
said Armenia’s Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev would meet
on Sunday at the French Consulate in Munich.
The negotiations are led by a trio of mediators from the United
States, Russia and France working under the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The Munich meeting will be the sixth
this year, an intensity fuelling speculation about a possible
breakthrough. Mediators say they are making progress, but diplomats
caution that neither side appears ready to commit to difficult
concessions and sell them to their people.
21 November 2009, Saturday
TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES Ä°STANBUL