ARMENIA URGES TURKISH LAWMAKERS TO UNBLOCK ACCORD

Agence France Presse
Feb 10 2010
France

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian called on Turkish lawmakers
Wednesday to take the first step in implementing a stalled accord on
normalising ties between the two countries.

Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols in October to establish
diplomatic ties and reopen their shared border, in a historic step
towards ending decades of hostility stemming from World War I-era
massacres of Armenians.

The protocols must now be ratified by both countries’ parliaments,
but the process has stalled as the two sides have traded accusations
of trying to modify the landmark deal.

"The (Armenian) parliament will vote on the protocols if the Turkish
parliament goes ahead with that," the Armenian leader told the Chatham
House thinktank in London.

"As a leader of the political majority (in Armenia) I guarantee
a positive vote in parliament if the Turkish side votes without
preconditions and in the timeframe," he added.

But it was impossible to predict the Turkish parliament’s approval
due to its independence. If Armenia goes first "we risk being in a
situation where the (Armenian) parliament will approve it and Turkey
fails" to do so, he said.

Ankara has accused Yerevan of trying to set new conditions after
Armenia’s constitutional court said the protocols could not contradict
Yerevan’s official position that the Armenian mass killings constituted
genocide — a label Turkey fiercely rejects.

Armenia, for its part, is furious over Ankara’s insistence that
normalising Turkish-Armenian ties depends on progress between Armenia
and Turkish ally Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
Azerbaijan after ethnic Armenian forces wrested Nagorny Karabakh from
Baku’s control in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.