TURKEY FRUSTRATED WITH GENOCIDE REFERENCE BY ARMENIA COURT
Fulya Ozerkan

Hurriyet Daily News
rustrated-with-genocide-reference-in-armenia-court -reasoning-2010-01-19
Jan 19 2010
Turkey

Foreign Ministry sources say the reference in an Armenian court
decision to a declaration rejecting even the questioning of the 1915
killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire is against
the essence of the normalization process with Yerevan

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian (l) and Ahmet Davutoglu
(2nd from right) at after signing the protocols.

A top Armenian court’s reference to the 1915 killings of Armenians in
its reasoned decision about the constitutionality of protocols that
could pave the way for diplomatic relations with Turkey has drawn
ire from Ankara.

"It has been observed that this decision contains preconditions and
restrictive provisions that impair the objective and spirit of the
protocols," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement
late Monday. "This approach cannot be accepted on our part."

The Armenian court’s Jan. 12 decision established that the protocols
with Turkey conform to the country’s constitution, but Article 5 of
its six-page reasoned decision makes reference to Armenia’s Declaration
of Independence in a way that has provoked Turkey.

"The RA Constitutional Court also finds that the provisions of the
Protocol on Development of Relations between the Republic of Armenia
and the Republic of Turkey cannot be interpreted or applied in the
legislative process and application practice of the Republic of
Armenia as well as in the interstate relations in a way that would
contradict the provisions of the Preamble to the RA Constitution and
the requirements of Paragraph 11 of the Declaration of Independence
of Armenia," read the non-official English translation of the court’s
reasoning.

More precisely, the court decision stipulated that the agreement must
not contradict Paragraph 11 of the Declaration of Independence, which
is the section that angered Ankara. It states, "The Republic of Armenia
stands in support of the task of achieving international recognition
of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia."

Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said the court’s reference to a
declaration rejecting even the questioning of the 1915 killings of
Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire is against the essence
of the normalization process with Yerevan.

The protocols signed between the foreign ministers of Turkey and
Armenia in Zurich in October 2009 included the establishment of
a sub-commission to look into the 1915 events. Ankara now says
the Armenian court’s reasoning contradicts fundamental aspects of
the protocols and is putting a precondition on normalization of
Turkish-Armenian relations.

"Turkey, in line with its accustomed allegiance to international
commitments, maintains its adherence to the primary provisions of the
protocols. We expect the same allegiance from the Armenian government,"
the Foreign Ministry said in its statement.

Karabakh link

Another source of uneasiness in Ankara is Article 4 of the court
reasoning, which stipulates that the mutual obligations being
undertaken by the protocols are under the principles of international
law, exclusively of a bilateral interstate nature and cannot concern
any third party. That provision is interpreted as a neutralization of
Turkey’s linking the opening of the border with Armenia to a solution
to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

"We have launched a process of normalization in relations with
Armenia and in good faith taken steps that include the signing of
the protocols," Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin told the
Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review. "We have often expressed our
views about what the necessary conditions are for the maintenance of
peace and stability in the Caucasus."

The Turkish government submitted the protocols to Parliament, but they
have not been submitted for ratification because they depend on the
progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh territorial conflict. This conflict
between Armenia and Azerbaijan was tied to the normalization process
after Turkish leaders warned it would be hard to pass the protocols
without any progress toward a resolution to the Karabakh issue. Ankara
says the ball is in Armenia’s court now.

Burcu Gultekin Punsmann, a Caucasus expert at the Turkish think
tank TEPAV, said the diplomatic agreements were a product of
consensus between the states concerned and argued that the Armenian
constitutional court’s reasoning was putting limits on points for
which the sides had already reached an agreement.

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations and their border has
been closed since 1993, after Armenia’s invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh,
an Azerbaijani territory. The foreign ministers of both countries
signed two protocols in October 2009 in Zurich. The first, covering the
establishment of diplomatic relations, and the second, on the further
development of bilateral relations, are accompanied by an annex that
sets a clear timetable for the implementation of both protocols.

Armenian party slams Ankara’s reaction as ‘factitious’

An official from the ruling Armenian Republican Party has called the
Turkish Foreign Ministry’s reaction to the Armenian court reasoning a
"factitious" excuse to delay the signing of the protocols, the Anatolia
news agency reported Tuesday.

The party group’s secretary in parliament, Eduard Å~^armazanov, said
the court would not take any steps that contradict the country’s
constitution.

Armenia’s Democratic Party leader, Aram Sarkisian, said the court
decision was correcting the mistakes made by the Armenian Foreign
Ministry. "Turkey could slow down the negotiations and even reject
the protocols," the news agency quoted him as saying. "We need to
understand that we should act in line with our country’s interests."