TURKEY SEEKS U.S. HELP IN ARMENIA ROW

United Press International UPI
Feb 3 2010

ANKARA, Turkey, Feb. 3 (UPI) — Turkey is seeking the support of
the United States and Switzerland over an Armenian court ruling that
threatens the peace process between Turkey and Armenia.

Feridun Sinirlioglu, a top Turkish diplomat, will travel to Bern
and Washington "in the coming days to express our concern" over a
ruling by Armenia’s constitutional court, a Turkish Foreign Ministry
spokesman was quoted as saying by Turkish English-language newspaper
Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

The ruling threatens a peace process that hit its high last October
when Turkey and Armenia after decades of conflict signed two documents
to re-establish ties and reopen the countries’ mutual border.

Armenia’s constitutional court upheld the legality of the documents but
underlined that they can’t contradict the official Armenian position
that the 1915-1923 killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire constituted genocide, a label Ankara strongly rejects.

The spokesman vowed that Ankara was still eager to improve ties.

"There is no problem in Turkey’s Armenian opening," he was quoted as
saying. "But Armenia has a problem with its Turkey opening."

In Turkey, people are critical of Armenia’s occupation of
Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in neighboring Azerbaijan.

In 1993 Ankara severed ties with Armenia when it fought a war with
Azerbaijan, a close Turkish ally. Observers expect some sort of
political horse-trading between Turkey and Armenia on the genocide
and Nagorno-Karabakh issues.