MERCAN: WITHDRAWING ARMENIA PROTOCOLS NOT NEEDED

Today’s Zaman
Jan 22 2010
Turkey

Reiterating that an Armenian court’s reference to the killings of
Anatolian Armenians during World War I is against the spirit of the
two protocols signed between Armenia and Turkey for repairing ties
and reopening shared borders, a senior member of the ruling Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) argued, however, that there was no
need to withdraw the protocols from Parliament.

In a ruling on whether the proposed protocols were constitutional,
Armenia’s Constitutional Court approved the protocols signed in
October. Yet in its ruling dated Jan. 12 the court referred to the
country’s declaration of independence, which calls for recognition of
the 1915 killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule as genocide. Turkey
says the number is inflated and that many people died on both sides
during the chaotic period.

The Turkish government has already sent the protocols to Parliament
for ratification, a procedural requirement.

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

Devlet Bahceli, chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP),
meanwhile, said the government should "immediately withdraw"
the protocols from Parliament. No date has been set for their
ratification. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Murat Mercan, a
senior member of the AK Party and the head of Parliament’s foreign
affairs commission, said Parliament was in no rush to hold a debate
on these protocols, thus there was no pressure on the foreign affairs
commission to immediately deal with the protocols.

When asked whether the protocols would be withdrawn and in an apparent
response to Bahceli, Mercan said: "Practically, there is no difference
between holding the protocols at the parliament’s commission and the
government’s withdrawal of these protocols. We are extremely aware
of our responsibilities."

Earlier, another senior lawmaker with the AK Party, Bekir Bozdag said:
"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. Armenia must honor its promise and
fulfill its responsibility if it wants the normalization of ties
between the two countries."

In an apparent response to the Armenian court’s finding that Armenian
agreements with Turkey shouldn’t concern any third party as per the
conditions outlined in the two protocols, Erdogan said on Wednesday,
"Moreover, we don’t have the luxury of keeping Armenia-Azerbaijani
relations out of this."