DESPITE EVERYTHING, TURKEY WILL RATIFY PROTOCOLS, SAY TURKISH JOURNALISTS IN ARMENIA

Agos Weekly
Dec 18 2009
Istanbul

With the aim of meeting and holding discussions with their Armenian
colleagues, two Turkish journalists — Verhat Boratav of CNN Turk
and Badri Gyursel of Milliyet — arrived in Armenia recently and took
the time to respond to Armenian journalists’ questions during a press
conference today.

Speaking about the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish
Protocols, Gyursel noted that if progress in the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not registered, Turkey’s Grand National
Assembly (the Millet Meclisi) won’t ratify the Protocols.

At the same time, he noted that he can’t say how events will unfold
over the next few months. "It was perhaps in May of this year that
Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan announced in Baku that if no progress
is recorded in the Karabakh issue, even though nothing is noted about
this in the Protocols, they [the Protocols] can’t be ratified. From
that time till today, Turkey’s standpoint on that issue hasn’t
changed," said the journalist from Turkey. Turkey is also concerned
that after Protocols ratification, Armenia will "feel free" and there
won’t be any progress in the Karabakh issue.

"I, personally, would rather that the Karabakh issue not get mixed up
with this issue, but Turkey’s government, being under pressure, felt
under obligation," stated Gyursel. Asked what pressure is Turkey’s
government being subjected to, the journalist said, "both foreign
and internal."

Boratav, in turn, noted that nobody in Turkey was expecting that
Azerbaijan would respond in such a way to this issue: "In this game,
it’s not Armenia and Turkey who are dancing the tango, but rather
this is a tango of 5 states, since participating in the process are
also the U.S, Russia, and Azerbaijan."

By the end of the press conference, the Turkish journalists assured
their Armenian colleagues that, despite everything, Turkey will
ratify the Protocols, and a third party can do nothing about that,
since "Turkey has decided it so."