TURKEY AND ARMENIA BICKER PROTOCOL DECISION
EurAsiaNet
Jan 21 2010
NY
A ruling issued by Armenia’s Constitutional Court has established an
obstacle to Turkish-Armenian reconciliation efforts, Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has asserted.
Speaking on January 20, Erdogan complained about the Armenian high
court’s decision on the legality of reconciliation protocols signed by
Turkish and Armenian officials in Zurich last October. Specifically,
the court said that rapprochement efforts between Armenia and Turkey
should have no bearing on the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. It
likewise stated that the protocols should not deter Yerevan’s
long-standing campaign to secure international recognition of the
1915 genocide of Armenian by Ottoman Turks.
Erdogan said the court’s decision cast a pall over mend-fencing
efforts, Hurriyet, a major Turkish daily, reported. Turkish leaders
have asserted that ratification of the protocols by the Turkish
parliament is contingent on progress in the Karabakh talks. The
reconciliation protocols contained a provision to create a panel
that would probe the World War I-era slaughter of Armenians in
Ottoman Turkey.
On January 18, the Turkish Foreign Ministry complained that the
Armenian court statement was not in line with the "letter and spirit"
of the Zurich Protocols. Armenian officials shot back that Ankara
was overreacting, the Armenia Today news service reported January 20.