EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH ARMENIA-TURKEY TIES MAY BREAK DOWN

news.az
Jan 22 2010
Azerbaijan

Armenia warns of breakdown in Turkey reconciliation.

Armenia’s foreign minister on Friday warned that historic efforts
to establish ties with Turkey may break down, blaming Ankara for
obstructing the process, according to Agence France-Presse.

"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," Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian said at a press conference, AFP reported.

On Monday, Armenia’s Constitutional Court published its ruling
affirming the constitutionality of the protocol, angering Ankara
because the decision stipulated that the agreements must not violate
a part of Armenia’s declaration of Independence that calls for
recognition of the deaths of Armenians in 1915 as "genocide."

In October, Nalbandian and Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu signed
the historic protocols, which could pave the way to diplomatic
relations between the two countries

Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said Tuesday that 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.

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations and their border has
been closed since 1993, after Armenia’s invasion of 20 percent of
Azerbaijani territory.

The territorial conflict, referred to as Nagorno-Karabakh, 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 Karabakh.