ARMENIA COURT ENDORSES TURKEY DEAL

Hurriyet
Jan 12 2010
Turkey

Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday acknowledged the legality
of a landmark deal that would re-establish ties with Turkey, amid
growing objections to the deal in both nations.

"The Constitutional Court of Armenia established that the protocols
on the establishment of diplomatic relations and on the development
of relations between Armenia and Turkey are in conformity with the
constitution of Armenia," Agence France-Presse quoted the Court
President Gagik Harutunian as saying.

Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols in October to establish
diplomatic ties and reopen their shared border, in a deal hailed as a
historic step toward ending decades of hostility stemming from World
War I-era killings.

But Armenia in recent weeks has expressed growing frustration over
the Turkish Parliament’s failure to ratify the protocols. The Armenian
parliament has also yet to ratify the accord.

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian, who ordered the court’s inquiry,
earlier this month threatened to walk away from the deal if Ankara
"drags out" the process. Turkish officials have repeatedly said the
agreements will not be ratified without progress in Armenia’s dispute
with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Backed by Yerevan, ethnic Armenian separatists seized control of
Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan during a
war in the early 1990s that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity
with Azerbaijan – with which it has strong ethnic, trade and energy
links – against Yerevan’s support for the enclave’s separatists.

Many Armenians are concerned the treaty could lead to compromise on
Karabakh and Armenia’s demand that Turkey recognize the World War I
killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as "genocide."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that
the Armenian genocide claim was "a lie." Armenia should open its
archives concerning the events in 1915 to international scrutiny,
just as Turkey has done, Erdogan said.

Settling a century of animosity between the two sides would help foster
stability in the southern Caucasus, through which Caspian oil flows
to European markets. It may also boost Turkish chances of achieving
European Union membership and improve predominantly Muslim Turkey’s
relationship with the United States, where Congress has pressed for
an apology for the 1915 killings of Armenians.

Any reopening of the crossing should run parallel with resolving the
dispute over the mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said after he inked a historic
diplomatic deal with his Armenian counterpart in October. And
Azerbaijan says Turkey has given guarantees that the border won’t be
re-opened until Armenia’s occupation of Karabakh is resolved.