TURKEY CONTINUES DOUBLE-FACED POLICY
By Artur Hakobyan

news.am
Jan 21 2010
Armenia

The Turkish authorities, which can condemn the ratification of the
Armenian-Turkish protocols to failure by setting preconditions,
have been seeking a pretext for blaming Armenia. The Turkish
Premier and Foreign Minister have lately been repeatedly stating
that the Armenian-Turkish protocols will not be ratified without
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict being settled. By only making such
statements Turkey has stalemated the ratification process.

Nevertheless, the Turkish Foreign Office issued a statement on the
verdict returned by the RA Constitutional Court, which caused a stir
among the Turkish mass media.

According to the Turkish Foreign Office’s statement, the RA
Constitutional Court’s verdict on the constitutionality of the
Armenian-Turkish protocols runs counter to the letter and spirit of the
protocols and contains unacceptable preconditions. The Turkish press
presented Armenia as a state playing foul and going back on its word.

The Turkish Foreign Office’s statement and subsequent responses created
rather negative sentiments. One has only to read the comments on the
statements on Turkish websites. You get the impression that Turkey was
expecting a window of opportunity for complaints in order to justify
its own inactivity in the ratification process. One can hardly think
that the action had not been planned. Before the statement was made,
Murad Merican, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Turkish
Grand National Assembly, stated that the Armenian-Turkish protocols
would not be submitted to Parliament, as they would certainly be
rejected. To justify itself, the Turkish side employs such methods,
doing so by means of its Foreign Office.

The statement issued by the Turkish Foreign Office as followed by a no
less scandalous statement by Turkish Premier Recep Erdogan, who was on
a visit to Saudi Arabia. He claimed that the RA Constitutional Court
had amended the protocols. He raised objections to that. He pointed
out that the Armenian side must bring the protocols to their initial
form or their future may prove to be uncertain or the documents may be
"frozen". Turkish TV channels keep on broadcasting Erdogan’s statement,
to say nothing of the numerous comments on news websites.

Devlet Bahceli, Chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party, keeps
pace with the process as well. He demanded that, after the RA
Constitutional Court returned its verdict, the Turkish authorities
call back the protocols from Parliament and apologize to the Turkish
people. Unfortunately, Turkey continues its double-faced policy: its
words differ from its deeds, and that state does not stop shaping a
negative public image of Armenians in Turkey.

The simple truth is, however, that the RA Constitutional Court’s
verdict is not incorporated in the protocols. The documents will
be submitted to the Armenian Parliament in their initial wording,
a fact the Turkish politicians are well aware of.