AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
Jan 22 2010

Turkish gov’t documenting Yerevan’s reluctance to enforce reconciliation deal

22-01-2010 05:49:53
The Turkish Foreign Ministry is drafting a document that examines in
detail the extent of compliance of the Armenian Constitutional Court’s
recent decision to approve the 2009 agreement on normalizing the two
countries’ strained relations with the gist of the accord.
The document will clearly state that Yerevan is essentially leaning
toward walking away from the two protocols it signed with Ankara on
October 10, 2009 in Zurich, Turkish Hurriyet newspaper reported. Once
ready, it will be sent to representatives of Switzerland, a mediator
in the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation, as well as to those of the
United States, Russia and France, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group (MG), which witnessed the signing of the protocols.
Turkish diplomats have already conveyed Ankara’s stance on the
Armenian court’s January 12 ruling to Switzerland and the MG
co-chairing countries.
After Armenia’s Constitutional Court declared that the October 2009
accord complied with the main law of the land, the Turkish Foreign
Ministry said in a statement that it contained pre-conditions that
are inconsistent with the document. The ministry said the
pre-conditions and restrictive provisions cited in the ruling run
counter to the premise of the protocols and that it `undermines the
gist of negotiations on these protocols as well as their main goals’,
which is unacceptable.
Armenia and Turkey have been at odds and the border between the two
countries has been closed since 1993 due to Armenia’s policy of
occupation against Azerbaijan, Turkey’s ally, and past genocide
claims. The Zurich protocols signed by the Armenian and Turkish
governments, in a bid to normalize bilateral relations marred by
decades of hostility, seek to establish diplomatic relations and
reopen the two countries’ shared border. The documents, which still
require parliamentary approval, also envision setting up a commission
of historians to research the alleged World War I-era mass killings of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
The Turkish opposition deems the situation surrounding the protocols
as an impasse in the process of normalizing ties with Armenia. Deniz
Baykal, the chairman of the People’s Republic Party, Turkey’s main
opposition bloc, claimed this deadlock had resulted from the
authorities’ improper policy toward neighboring states.*