Agence France Presse
Jan 20 2010

New obstacles hit historic Armenia-Turkey deal

YEREVAN, Jan 20 2010

Armenian and Turkish efforts to establish ties after decades of
hostility hit fresh snags Wednesday after Ankara accused Yerevan of
trying to set new conditions on the historic deal.

Armenia expressed "bewilderment" at Turkish claims that a ruling by
its Constitutional Court this month had set new conditions, while
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Yerevan was trying to
"doctor" the text.

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian said in a statement that
he intended to speak with Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu "in
order to express my bewilderment and clarify where exactly in the
decision of the Constitutional Court the Turkish side sees
preconditions."

Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols in October to establish
diplomatic ties and reopen their shared border, in a deal hailed as a
historic step towards ending decades of hostility stemming from World
War I-era massacres of Armenians under Ottoman Turkey.

Armenia’s Constitutional Court on January 12 upheld the legality of
the agreement, but also said the two protocols "cannot be interpreted"
to contradict a paragraph in Armenia’s 1990 declaration of
independence that refers to "the 1915 genocide in Ottoman Turkey and
Western Armenia."

Turkey’s refusal to establish ties with Armenia stems in part from
Yerevan’s attempts to have the World War-I era massacres
internationally recognised as genocide.

References to "Western Armenia" are also sensitive as some in Turkey
see use of the term as making territorial claims on areas in eastern
Anatolia.

In a statement, Turkey’s foreign ministry said the court ruling
"contains preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the
letter and spirit of the protocols."

Erdogan said Wednesday that the ruling was "an attitude that can never
be accepted," Anatolia news agency reported.

"Armenia has attempted to doctor the text. This must be rectified, or
otherwise the process will be harmed," he told reporters during a
visit to Saudi Arabia.

Armenia in recent weeks has expressed growing frustration over the
Turkish parliament’s failure to ratify the protocols.

It has also accused Turkey of altering the terms of the deal by
linking it with Armenia’s conflict with Turkish ally Azerbaijan over
the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.

The Armenian parliament also has yet to ratify the accord.

Nalbandian said he hoped the fresh Turkish objections are not aimed at
justifying Ankara’s "continuous attempts to set preconditions" on the
deal.

Erdogan insisted that "Turkey has displayed its sincerity" by sending
the protocols to parliament for ratification, but added that "we do
not have the luxury to keep Armenian-Azerbaijani relations out of this
affair."

Backed by Yerevan, ethnic Armenian separatists seized control of
Nagorny Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan
during a war in the early 1990s that claimed an estimated 30,000
lives.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity
with Azerbaijan — with which it has strong ethnic, trade and energy
links — against Yerevan’s support for the enclave’s separatists.

Turkish newspapers Wednesday said the Armenian court ruling had
endangered the reconciliation process.

The mass-selling Hurriyet daily wrote that the ruling pointed at "a
new crisis with Armenia," while the liberal Radikal said that Yerevan
had "tripped up the protocols."