TURKISH EX-FM: COUNTRY’S PARLIAMENT NOT TO RATIFY ANKARA-YEREVAN PROTOCOLS
Today
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Feb 22 2010
Azerbaijan
The Turkish Parliament will not ratify the Turkish-Armenian protocols
after their amendment by the Armenian Constitutional Court, Turkish
Parliamentary EU Adjustment Committee Chairman and former Turkish
Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said.
"If Armenia hoped that Ankara would take the Armenian Constitutional
Court’s amends to the protocols, it is mistaken. Ankara will never
accept them," Yakis told Trend News over the phone.
Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers, Ahmet Davutoglu and Edward
Nalbandian, signed the protocols in Zurich Oct. 10.
After his official visit to Moscow, Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara that although some claims that the
Turkey-Armenia relations are not related to the Nagorno-Karabakh
problem, this process is directly related to the conflict.
The Armenian Constitutional Court approved that the Ankara-Yerevan
protocols complied with the Armenian Constitution Jan.12, 2009.
However, later the court reported that the creation of a joint
commission to study the 1915 events is unnecessary and Armenia will
always seek to recognize the genocide.
Erdogan warned that if the Armenian Constitutional Court does not
reverse its decision, the relations between Ankara and Yerevan
may erode.
There is no such rule in the international practice, where after the
signing of an international instrument a domestic legislative body
can make changes, he said.
The Turkish government signed the protocols not with the Constitutional
Court, but with the Armenian government and the court’s decision is
an internal affair of Yerevan, and has no relation to Turkey, he added.
According to him, if Armenia had any claims in connection with the
signed protocol, it should have said earlier.
"If the Turkish MPs stated that they will not ratify the
Armenian-Turkish protocols, until the resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue, any prime minister or foreign minister or
president will not affect their decision," he said.
Regarding efforts from the United States and Russia, which are
co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, Yakis said: "Washington is now more
interested in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as the delay
in this matter could have a negative effect on U.S. relations with
such ally as Turkey."
Russia, in turn, does not want to loose positions in the South
Caucasus, and does not intend to relinquish its influence in the
region.
"If Armenia solves its problems with Turkey, it no longer needs
the presence of Russia in the South Caucasus, and sooner or later,
Armenia would send its gaze toward the United States," he said.
Nevertheless, resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is in
Russia’s interest, which is concerned over the lack of stability in
the South Caucasus, he added.
"But politicians sometimes do not take strategic decisions, taking
into account only the goals of today. I think that Russia will not
show resolution when deciding on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue," he said.