TURKEY SAYS RECONCILIATION WITH ARMENIA AT RISK
By Selcan Hacaoglu

eTaiwan News
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Jan 20 2010

The Turkish prime minister on Wednesday said an Armenian court’s
reference to the mass killings of Armenians could harm efforts to
end a century of enmity.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan was reacting to the Jan. 12 approval by Armenia’s
Constitutional Court of an October agreement to heal ties and reopen
shared borders.

Armenia on Tuesday defended the court’s decision, triggering an
exchange of harsh statements that could further complicate the two
countries’ implementation of the deal.

In a ruling on whether the proposed agreement was constitutional,
the Armenian court referred to the country’s independence declaration,
which calls for recognition of the 1915 massacre of up to 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide. Turkey says the number is
inflated and that many died on both sides during a chaotic period.

Erdogan called the court’s ruling "unacceptable" and warned that the
process of reconciliation "would be harmed if it is not corrected."

"Moreover, we don’t have the luxury of keeping Armenia-Azerbaijan
relations out of this," Erdogan said in apparent response to the
court’s also saying agreements with Turkey shouldn’t concern any
third party. He spoke during a visit to Saudi Arabia.

Turkey also wants Armenian troops withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh,
an Armenian-occupied enclave in Azerbaijan. Turkey closed the border
in 1993 to protest Armenia’s war with neighboring Azerbaijan.

"No one should expect deliberations on the protocols to take place
even at the commission level, let alone the floor, unless Armenia
withdraws from Nagorno-Karabakh," Bekir Bozdag, a senior lawmaker from
Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, said on Wednesday. "Armenia
must honor its promise and fulfill its responsibility if it wants
the normalization of ties between the two countries."

Turkey shares ethnic and cultural bonds with Azerbaijan and wants a
peaceful settlement to the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey’s recent spat with Armenia has emboldened the country’s
opposition to demand the government scrap the Oct. 10 deal altogether.

Devlet Bahceli, the chairman of a nationalist opposition party, said
the government should "immediately withdraw" the protocols from the
parliament. No date has been set for their ratification.