ANKARA OBSESSED WITH PRECONDITIONS
Armenian Weekly
January 20, 2010
ANKARA, YEREVAN (Combined Sources)-As reported by the Armenian
Weekly on Jan. 19, in response to last week’s ruling by Armenia’s
Constitutional Court, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a press
release condemning Armenia for setting "unacceptable" preconditions
on the Armenia-Turkey protocols.
The ministry said "It has been observed that this [Constitutional
Court] decision contains preconditions and restrictive provisions
which impair the letter and spirit of the Protocols."
"The said decision undermines the very reason for negotiating these
Protocols as well as their fundamental objective. This approach cannot
be accepted on our part," continued the Turkish statement.
"Turkey, in line with its accustomed allegiance to its international
commitments, maintains its adherence to the primary provisions of
these Protocols," added the statement.
"We expect the same allegiance from the Armenian Government," the
Turkish Ministry said in a statement," concluded the brief statement.
On Jan. 12, Armenia’s Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality
of the protocols, adding however, that the documents cannot have
any connection with the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution
process or impede Armenia of its pursuit of international recognition
of the Armenia Genocide. To reinforce the latter point, the Court
referenced Article 11 of Armenia’s Declaration of Independence, which
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."
Official Yerevan was quick to react with Foreign Minister Eduard
Nalbandian saying that he will personally phone his Turkish counterpart
Ahmet Davutoglu to "express my bewilderment and clarify where exactly
the Turkish side sees preconditions and just how the decision by
Armenia’s Constitutional Court contradicts the fundamental objectives
of the protocols."
Nalbandian also suggested that the Turkish government was looking
for excuses to delay the process and add further preconditions on
the protocols.
Despite countless arguments by the Armenian President and foreign
minister that Armenia has entered this process without preconditions,
Turkey has repeatedly linked the normalization of relations between
the two countries with the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
in favor of Azerbaijan.
As recently as late last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said that the protocols would not be ratified until
a resolution to the Karabakh conflict is reached. These remarks
came after his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
who bluntly said that the processes were separate and could not be
interconnected. The same position was expressed by Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov last week during his official visit to Yerevan.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which has spearheaded vocal
opposition to the protocols both in Armenia and the Diaspora,
rejected Turkey’s statement. The party’s political director Giro
Manoyan told reporters Tuesday that with its statement Turkey proved,
once again, that, aside from its own interpretations, it rejects any
other explanation of the protocols.
Manoyan warned that after this announcement by Turkey, Armenian
authorities should not attempt to weaken the Armenian high court’s
position.
"It is imperative for the Armenian authorities to not seek to weaken
the Armenian Constitutional Court’s decision," said Manoyan explaining,
"The Armenian government must continue the process in the spirit of
the court ruling."
In a statement issued by the ARF following the Court ruling, the party
expressed its continued rejection of the protocols, but added that the
Constitutional Court provisions referenced above provide an opportunity
for revisions in the next phase of the ratification process.
"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 conflict, added Hurriyet in its
news report on the matter.
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, reported Hurriyet.