TURKEY HEIGHTENS PRESSURE ON ARMENIA AFTER COURT RULING
AzerNews Weekly
Feb 4 2010
Azerbaijan
Turkey has moved to ratchet up diplomatic pressure on Armenia after
the top Armenian court enacted a ruling last month on the 2009
agreement on normalizing bilateral relations that Ankara labeled as
unfair. Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu
is scheduled to hold talks on Thursday with officials of Switzerland,
which is brokering the process of reconciling the two neighbors,
who face decades of hostility, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported.
In a meeting with the Swiss State Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Michael
Ambuhl, Sinirlioglu will reiterate Turkey’s concern over the fact that
the Armenian Constitutional Court’s January 12 ruling contains points
that are inconsistent with the protocols on mending ties signed with
Armenia on October 10, 2009 in Zurich. The Turkish official will warn
that his country will bring an end to the normalization process if
Yerevan fails to honor its commitments reflected in the documents.
Ambuhl is considered one of the "architects" of the closed-door
meetings launched by Turkey and Armenia on July 8, 2008.
The Armenian court had ruled that the protocols signed in Zurich were
in line with the introductory part of the country’s Constitution and
the declaration of independence. The declaration of independence,
however, levels territorial claims against Turkey and calls the
neighboring country’s eastern provinces "Western Armenia". Moreover,
the declaration says achieving international recognition of the alleged
World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire is
a task facing the Armenian government. The Turkish government has
criticized the ruling, saying it contained pre-conditions that run
counter to the premise of the reconciliation accord.
The Turkish media said that, initially, Ankara intends to put
diplomatic pressure on Yerevan by means of negotiations. Afterwards,
a legal document will be submitted to the interested parties.
Following talks with Swiss officials, Turkish diplomats are expected
to hold meetings with representatives of the U.S., Russia and France,
which facilitated the signing of the Turkish-Armenian protocols.
The protocols, signed in Zurich by Turkey, Azerbaijan’s ally, and
Armenia, with whom Azerbaijan faces a long-standing conflict over Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh, seek to establish diplomatic relations and reopen
the two countries’ sealed borders. The move was an attempt to break
the ice in normalizing Ankara-Yerevan relations, marred by decades
of hostility due to Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territory and
Yerevan’s claims on 1915 "genocide".*