TURKEY, ARMENIA MUST HONOUR PEACE DEALS-TURKEY’S GUL
Reuters
Feb 11 2010
UK
ANKARA, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Turkey and Armenia must show political
courage and honour their commitments to bury a century of hostility,
Turkey’s president said on Thursday, after the two countries accused
each other of trying to rewrite the accords.
Four months after Turkey and Armenia signed an historic deal to open
their border with the endorsement of the United States, the European
Union and Russia, the process has been thrown into question by the
weight of still-unresolved disputes.
"We have to be aware that concluding this historic process will require
honouring our commitments in their entirety as well as displaying
adequate political courage and vision," Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul
said in a letter addressed to his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarksyan.
"Overcoming long-established prejudices and nurturing mutual
understanding and trust among our two neighbouring peoples were our
main objectives when endorsing the process of normalisation between
our countries. You should have no doubt that our determination to
move these objectives forward is intact, provided this resolve and
commitment remains reciprocal."
On Wednesday, Sarksyan said the accords must be voted on by the
Turkish parliament before Armenia’s parliament would approve them,
and warned that Armenia could break off the effort to normalise
relations if Turkey dragged its feet.
The accords require approval by both parliaments.
Ankara and Yerevan have accused each other of trying to re-write
the texts, which are the closest the sides have come to overcoming
the legacy of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during
World War One.
Turkey has demanded that ethnic Armenian forces pull back from the
front lines of the disputed mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh as
a condition of 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 there, backed by Christian
Armenia, broke away as the Soviet Union collapsed.
The accords made no mention of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia and Turkey
said they would create a commission to investigate the WWI massacres,
which Armenia — backed by several European states and many historians
— says was genocide.
Turkey rejects the term and says many Muslims and Christians died
during the chaotic collapse of the Ottoman empire.
The deal 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. (Writing by Ibon
Villelabeitia; editing by Andrew Roche)