Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 23 2010

Armenia and Turkey exchange accusations

Armenia accused Turkey on Friday of trying to block a deal to
establish diplomatic ties and open their border and warned the process
could collapse, while Ankara kept on insisting that a ruling by the
top Armenian court on protocols between the two countries expected to
pave the way for the normalization of relations is against both the
`letter and spirit’ of the protocols.

The comments by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian appeared
to be a response to Turkish complaints over the Constitutional Court
ruling in Armenia last week that Ankara said was an attempt to rewrite
the text of the deal. The rhetoric in both countries has grown
increasingly bitter since they inked accords in October designed to
overcome a century of hostility stemming from the World War I killings
of Anatolian Armenians.

`If Turkey is not ready to ratify the protocols, if it continues to
speak in the language of preconditions and to block the process, then
I don’t exclude it,’ Nalbandian said at a press conference in Yerevan
on Friday when asked if the process was in danger of collapsing. But
he added, `I hope Turkey will ratify the documents.’

According to a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement on Jan. 18, the
Armenian Constitutional Court’s `grounds for decision’ over the
conformity of the protocols to their constitution `contain
preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and
spirit of the protocols’ and `undermine the very reason for
negotiating these protocols as well as their fundamental objective.’

In Ankara, Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu, speaking at a joint press
conference with visiting Jordan’s Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh,
recalled that Turkey had sent the protocols to Parliament in order to
be ratified a week after they were signed on Oct. 10, while Armenia
sent them first to the Constitutional Court in order to decide whether
the proposed protocols were constitutional.

The two protocols require parliamentary ratification in both countries
before they enter into force. The Armenian court ruled the protocols
were constitutional.

`Of course, it may be argued to which extent the legal opinions — put
forth by the Constitutional Court along the approval process — are
binding within the Armenian constitution. However, what matters for us
is the protection of the wording and spirit of the protocols,’
DavutoÄ?lu said.

`Today, we continue to be committed to the wording and spirit of the
protocols,’ he said, highlighting the presence of a strong political
will in Turkey for full normalization of ties with Armenia.

Recalling that he conveyed his concerns to Nalbandian during a lengthy
telephone conversation earlier this week, DavutoÄ?lu said he reminded
Nalbandian of the fact that they started this initiative to normalize
relations with a `visionary view.’

The Armenian court’s legal opinions do not have an impact on
principles agreed upon by Armenia and Turkey, his Armenian counterpart
told him, DavutoÄ?lu said, noting that he would discuss the issue with
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Swiss Foreign Minister
Micheline Calmy-Rey, whose country mediated the talks between Armenia
and Turkey, during telephone talks later on Friday.

`The picture which will emerge with the [implementation of the]
protocols should not change; all elements targeted with these
protocols, including the commissions, should be accepted as a whole,’
he said.

DavutoÄ?lu was referring to the fact that the court had ruled to
approve the protocols, which call for the establishment of a joint
commission of historians to better understand past events, but on the
other hand refers to the Declaration of Independence of Armenia.

Paragraph 11 of the Declaration of Independence 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.’ Ankara argues that with such a ruling, Armenia has taken the
heart out of the protocols and created a new, restrictive situation.

23 January 2010, Saturday
TODAY’S ZAMAN ANKARA

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress