ARMENIA WARNS OF BREAKDOWN IN TURKEY RECONCILIATION
By Mariam Harutunian

Agence France Presse
Jan 22 2010

YEREVAN — Historic efforts to establish ties between Armenia and
Turkey may break down, the Armenian foreign minister warned on Friday,
blaming Ankara for obstructing the process.

"If Turkey is not ready to ratify the protocols, if it continues
to speak in ultimatums, to set preconditions and to obstruct the
process, then I do not exclude that negotiations will break down,"
Eduard Nalbandian said at a press conference.

His comments came after Armenian and Turkish efforts to establish
ties after decades of hostility hit fresh snags this week as the two
sides traded accusations of trying to modify the landmark deal.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Yerevan of
trying to "doctor" the agreement, saying that a ruling by Armenia’s
Constitutional Court this month had set new conditions.

Nalbandian dismissed Ankara’s accusations as "absurd."

"Statements by Turkey that the Constitutional Court’s decision creates
preconditions or contradicts the principles of the protocols… do
not correspond with reality and are absurd," he said.

"These statements will not be believed, not only in the international
community but also in Turkey itself," he said.

Yerevan has accused Turkey of trying to set new conditions on the deal
by linking it with Armenia’s conflict with Turkish ally Azerbaijan
over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.

Nalbandian said he did not expect a breakthrough in talks on Karabakh
in the near future.

"It is difficult to say what will happen in 2010. If the Azerbaijani
side shows a more constructive approach then there may be changes. But
I cannot say that in the near future we can expect a breakthrough,"
he 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 of Armenians under Ottoman Turkish rule.

Armenia’s Constitutional Court on January 12 upheld the legality of the
agreement, but also said the two protocols "cannot be interpreted" to
contradict a paragraph in Armenia’s 1990 declaration of independence
that refers to "the 1915 genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western
Armenia."

Turkey’s refusal to establish ties with Armenia stems in part from
Yerevan’s attempts to have the massacres internationally recognised
as genocide.

References to "Western Armenia" are also sensitive as some in Turkey
see use of the term as making territorial claims on areas in eastern
Anatolia.

Neither country’s parliament has yet ratified the two protocols.

Turkish officials have repeatedly said the agreements will not be
ratified without progress in the dispute 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.

The head of Armenia’s parliament said last month that it will not
ratify the deal before the Turkish parliament does.