Aztag Daily, Lebanon
Jan 21 2010

The Fourth Pre-condition

by Shahan Kandaharian, Editor-in-chief

International, Turkish and Armenian media outlets are
over-flooded by the Turkish newest campaign which is suggesting to
declare a stalemate in the Armenian-Turkish Protocols and accuses the
Armenian side as being responsible for that situation. In some reports
the issue has been further specified as the responsibility of official
Yerevan that has succumbed to the demands of the Diaspora and
particularly the Tashnag party.

The official statement of the Turkish Foreign Ministry and
Prime Minister Erdogan’s echos of it speak about the Protocols being
jeopardized and underline that the decisions made by the
Constitutional Court contain statements that oppose the soul and the
essence of the Protocols. There’s more: Turkey is trying to create new
rules to the game as well as abruptly come out of its current
situation, accusing the Armenian side of having a pre-conditional
approach. Ankara declares that by the decision of the Constitutional
Court Yerevan is forcing pre-conditions for Armenian-Turkish
relations.

We are already speaking about a diplomatic version of war.
Turkey who leads a pre-conditional policy is accusing the Armenian
side by forcing pre-conditions. The strategy is simple. Drag the
process, suspend the ratification, hinder the relations and at the
same time throw the responsibility of its actions on the other side.
Drag until when? Until the expected breakthrough is achieved in the
Gharapagh negotiations. Until the realization of Turkey’s first
pre-condition. It’s simple that this policy of dragging is related
more to the Artsakh portfolio than the US President’s April address.

The Turkish Prime Minister who is currently in Saudi Arabia
has announced that if the Armenian side doesn’t change the
Constitutional Court’s decision, then the Armenian-Turkish relations
will be freezed. This style of political threat adopted by the Turkish
Prime Minister is not a novelty; it’s a standard practice in the
Turkish policy. The issue here lies not in the style but elsewhere.

The Turkish Prime Minister is surely familiar with the
Constitutional Court’s decision, it’s corresponding arguments and all
the details related to it. There it is stated clearly that the
decision is final, not subject to change, not subject to objection. Of
course this explanation is given on an inner-state level. Nevertheless
it makes clear that the decision of untouchable.

So, now what it is that Prime Minister Erdogan is after? A
change in Armenia’s inner-state orders? A restriction in the
Constitutional Court’s authorization? Of course the plan follows one
explicit line. The continuous announcements by official Ankara about
pre-conditions have self-restrained the Turkish side preventing it
from making any forward move on this platform until a satisfactory
point is reached in the Gharapagh negotiations. Geopolitical centers
one after the other announced that Armenian-Turkish relations and
Armenian-Azerbeidjani negotiations are not related processes. In the
present political situation no breakthrough appears on the corner in
the Gharapagh portfolio.

The process, therefore, must be hindered, taken to a
stalemate and for all that the Armenian side be accused demanding
before all else that the Constitutional Court of Armenia breaks its
decision. On the list of its previous three preconditions: the
withdrawal of Armenian troops from Gharapagh, the halting of efforts
for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the recognition of
the territorial integrity of Turkey, here comes the fourth one: the
breaking of the decision taken by the Constitutional Court of Armenia.

We are already talking about the fourth pre-condition of Turkey.