eTaiwan News
Jan 23 2010

Armenia urges Turkey to ratify reconciliation deal

By AVET DEMOURIAN (AP)
2010-01-23 12:04 AM

Armenia warned Turkey on Friday against dragging its feet on ratifying
an agreement to improve ties, saying delays could lead to a collapse
of the reconciliation process.
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said efforts to heal relations
between the two countries could end in failure if Turkey keeps
delaying the ratification of the October agreement that envisaged
establishing diplomatic ties and reopening their shared border.

"If Turkey isn’t ready to ratify the protocols and continues to set
preconditions and links the process of normalization with other issues
… it’s not excluded that the talks will collapse," Nalbandian said
at a news conference in the Armenian capital.

His statement comes in response to Turkey’s warnings that an Armenian
court’s reference to the World War I-era killings of Armenians could
harm efforts to end a century of enmity.

The ruling this month on whether the proposed agreement was
constitutional referred to Armenia’s independence declaration, which
calls for recognition of the 1915 massacre of up to 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide. Turkey says the number is
inflated and that many died on both sides during a chaotic period.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week called the
ruling "unacceptable" and warned it could harm the process of
reconciliation if not corrected. Erdogan also dismissed the Armenian
court’s statement that agreements with Turkey shouldn’t concern any
third party.

Turkey shares ethnic and cultural bonds with Azerbaijan and wants a
peaceful settlement to the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in
Azerbaijan that has been under Armenian control.

Nalbandian rejected the Turkish demands for a reversal of the ruling,
saying Turkey’s criticism could be an attempt to shift blame for
failing to ratify the agreement.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday that Ankara has a
"strong political will" to improve ties with Armenia, but warned
Yerevan against any attempts to change the interpretation of the
agreement. "The picture that will come out from this protocol should
not change," he said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress