AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
Jan 22 2010

Erdogan warns Armenia against prerequisites

22-01-2010 06:05:26

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan complained Wednesday that
a ruling by a Armenia’s Constitutional Court could derail efforts to
ratify agreements committing the two countries to normalizing
relations pending in the parliaments of both countries, Hurriyet
reported.
Erdogan made his remarks while on an official trip to Saudi Arabia. He
said the court’s reference both to the `killing of Armenians’ and to
the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh is problematic. `This will challenge the process unless the
mistake is corrected. It’s definitely unacceptable to Turkey,’ Erdogan
told a news conference.
On January 12, Armenia’s Constitutional Court upheld the
constitutionality of the protocols, which had been submitted to it by
President Serzh Sarkisian. The court found, however, that the
documents cannot have any connection with the ongoing Garabagh
conflict resolution process or impede Armenia of its pursuit of
international recognition of the alleged genocide of Armenians. To
reinforce the latter point, the Court referenced Article 11 of
Armenia’s Declaration of Independence, which states: `The Republic of
Armenia stands in support of the task of achieving international
recognition of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western
Armenia.’
`We have never taken the protocol to our Constitutional Court. We took
it directly to our Parliament, without making changes. We didn’t
employ a mediator on the text. We didn’t carry out any
read-between-the-lines operations. This is a proof of our sincerity.
Armenia has tried to change the text,’ he said.
The accord, signed by the foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia in
October 2009, need parliamentary approval in both countries for
ratification. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP),
which controls parliament, has stonewalled the agreements, refusing to
vote on them until Armenia agrees to settle the Garabagh conflict on
Azerbaijan’s terms. *