OPPOSITION BLOC AGAIN SLAMS ARMENIAN FOREIGN POLICY

RFE/RL
Armenia-Turkey
Wednesday, 03 February 2010 00:12

RFE/RL — The opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) on Tuesday
denounced President Serzh Sarkisian’s policy on Turkey, saying that
it has given Ankara a say in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and
left Armenia under "unprecedented" international pressure to make
more concessions to Azerbaijan.

"What was supposed to be a Turkish-Armenian reconciliation process
has effectively turned into a Turkish-Armenian conflict," said Levon
Zurabian, a leading member of the alliance headed by former President
Levon Ter-Petrosian.

"Instead of having normalized relations, we have even more hostile
relations," he told journalists, referring to the latest accusations
traded by Armenian and Turkish leaders.

Zurabian repeated HAK claims that Sarkisian willingly agreed to forego
a greater international recognition of the Armenian genocide when
embarking on a far-reaching rapprochement with Turkey in 2008. He
said the Armenian leader hoped that an open border with Turkey would
earn him stronger international support in the Karabakh conflict.

"Sarkisian’s regime also calculated that that support will help it to
crush with impunity the opposition struggle for democratic freedoms
and the formation of a legitimate government in the country," he added.

Speaking on behalf of the HAK, Zurabian claimed that by making
the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on a
Karabakh settlement Turkey has become an important player in the peace
process and managed to get the mediating powers to step up pressure
on Armenia. He said Sarkisian has now no choice but to make sweeping
concessions to Azerbaijan or face a worsening of the socioeconomic
situation in the country "fraught with economic revolts."

Ter-Petrosian and other HAK figures have repeatedly stated before
that a Karabakh accord favoring Azerbaijan is imminent. Speaking at an
October 2008 rally in Yerevan, Ter-Petrosian charged that Sarkisian is
ready to "put Karabakh up for sale" and renounce Armenia’s political
and military alliance with Russia in return for legitimizing his rule
in the eyes of the West.

The HAK leader similarly accused the Armenian leadership of
"jeopardizing the existence of Nagorno-Karabakh" when he addressed
thousands of supporters in September 2009. He stressed that the only
way to avert "undue concessions" to Azerbaijan is to force Sarkisian
to resign with a "powerful and sustained wave of popular indignation."

But in another speech delivered to HAK members less than two months
later, Ter-Petrosian toned down these allegations and signaled his
readiness to recognize Sarkisian’s legitimacy. He also lambasted
nationalist critics of the president’s conciliatory line on Turkey.

The Sarkisian administration has still not responded to the surprise
overtures. It insists that Yerevan will never agree to any settlement
placing Karabakh back under Azerbaijani control. Armenian leaders
have also indicated that no Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements will
likely be signed in the coming months.

They have clearly been buoyed by statements by U.S. and especially
Russian officials urging Ankara to unconditionally normalize ties with
Yerevan. Eduard Sharmazanov, the spokesman for Sarkisian’s Republican
Party of Armenia (HHK), described those statements on Tuesday as a
"political slap" in Ankara’s face.

Addressing the Armenian parliament, Sharmazanov also lashed out
at Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for saying that the
United Nations denounced Armenia as an "occupier" in four resolutions
on Karabakh adopted in the early 1990s. "I am asking Mr. Erdogan to
show those four resolutions declaring Armenia an occupier," he said,
likening the Turkish premier to "political adventurers."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress