ARMENIA COURT ENDORSES TURKEY DEAL
Agence France Presse
January 12, 2010 Tuesday 1:01 PM GMT
Armenia’s constitutional court on Tuesday acknowledged the legality
of a landmark deal that would re-establish ties with arch-foe Turkey,
amid growing objections to the deal in the ex-Soviet state.
"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," the court president Gagik Harutunian said.
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 towards ending decades of hostility stemming from
World War I-era massacres.
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 Serzh Sarkisian, who ordered the court’s inquiry,
earlier this month threatening 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
Nagorny 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.