FAILURE TO RATIFY ARMENIAN-TURKISH PROTOCOLS WILL HARM AMERICAN-TURKISH TIES, IAN LESSER SAYS

Panorama.am
18:49 17/12/2009

The Turkish Cumhuriyet daily issued German "Marshal" Fund expert Ian
Lesser’s remarks over the ongoing situation of the Armenian-Turkish
relations and particularly the details of Obama-Erdogan meeting.

According to Lesser, the top agenda of the leaders included four
main issues:

1.Afghanistan 2.Iran nuclear plan 3.the Middle East peace
4.Armenian-Turkish normalization

Lesser highlighted that the Armenian-Turkish normalization plays a
central role in Washington-Ankara ties. During Erdogan’s visit Obama
Administration not surprisingly made it obvious that despite Ankara
disposition, the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish normalization
protocols and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are two separate processes
and should not be linked.

"Providing the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish normalization
protocols fails, this will easily harm the American-Turkish ties,"
Lesser said.