ARMENIA SAYS TURKEY MUST VOTE FIRST ON PEACE DEAL
By Adrian Croft

Reuters
Feb 10 2010
UK

* Armenia warns it could break off peace process
* Accord would bring big gains

LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Accords aimed at burying a century of
hostility between Turkey and Armenia must be voted on by the Turkish
parliament before Armenia’s parliament will approve them, Armenia’s
president said on Wednesday.

Serzh Sarksyan also warned that Armenia could break off the effort
to normalise relations if Turkey dragged its feet.

Armenia and Turkey agreed last year to establish diplomatic ties and
open their common border within two months of parliamentary approval.

The accords were signed with the endorsement of the United States,
European Union and Russia, but the Armenian and Turkish governments
have since accused each other of trying to re-write the texts,
throwing the process into question.

Sarksyan said he would tell his staff on Wednesday to submit the
accords to the Armenian parliament, but that Turkey’s parliament
would have to be first to ratify them.

"The parliament of Armenia will vote on the protocols if the Turkish
parliament goes ahead with that," he said, answering questions at
the Chatham House thinktank in London.

"Otherwise we can find ourselves in a situation where the Armenian
parliament ratifies and the Turkish parliament fails to," he said,
speaking through an interpreter.

Sarksyan said he could guarantee a positive vote in the Armenian
parliament "if the Turkish side does it in a reasonable time frame
and without pre-conditions".

But he said Turkish officials had said their parliament was independent
and its decisions unpredictable.

LONGSTANDING DIVISIONS

The deal is the closest the sides have come to overcoming the legacy of
the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One.

It would bring big economic gains to poor, landlocked Armenia. Turkey
would burnish its credentials as a potential EU entry state and boost
its clout in the South Caucasus, a region criss-crossed by pipelines
carrying oil and gas to the West.

Sarksyan said Armenia was committed to rapprochement with Turkey. "We
have agreed to move forward without any pre-conditions, not making
our relations contingent upon Turkey’s recognition of the Armenian
genocide," Sarksyan said.

"However, if, as many suspect, it is proven that Turkey’s goal is
to protract rather than to normalise relations, we will have to
discontinue this process," he said.

Turkey has also warned that the peace process could fail unless it
was carried out properly.

It has demanded that ethnic Armenian forces pull back from the
frontlines of the disputed mountain region of Nagorno- Karabakh as
a condition for ratifying the peace deal. This has aroused fierce
resistance in Armenia.

The Turkish condition is aimed at placating close Muslim ally
Azerbaijan, an oil and gas exporter which lost control over
Nagorno-Karabakh when ethnic Armenians backed by Christian Armenia
broke away as the Soviet Union collapsed. Ankara closed the border
with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan.

Sarksyan said he would invite Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev if
a ceremony was held to mark the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border.

Sarksyan accused Azerbaijan of stockpiling weapons and said that,
while Armenia despised war, "we realise that we must be ready for
war in case others wish to fight." (Editing by Noah Barkin)