ANKARA NOT SATISFIED WITH YEREVAN’S ASSURANCES

Hurriyet
http://www.hurriyetdailynews. com/n.php?n=ankara-not-satisfied-with-yerevan8217s -assurance-2010-02-26
Feb 26 2010
Turkey

As Turkey and Armenia attempt to put decades of enmity behind them
with a slow-moving normalization process, Ankara has complained that
Armenia has contradicted itself. Armenia’s president says his country
is committed to the process, but the parliament has made it easier
for him to withdraw the country from international agreements

Turkey remains far from satisfied on Armenian assurances that it is
committed to normalizing the two countries’ troubled ties, according
to Turkish diplomatic sources.

Ankara says Armenia’s attitude has been contradictory on the two
protocols designed to establish diplomatic relations between the
neighbors. President Serge Sarkisian has expressed his commitment to
the agreements, but his country’s parliament has passed a bill that
would make it easier for Yerevan to ultimately abandon the accords.

"Confusing signals are coming from the Armenian side," a senior
Turkish Foreign Ministry diplomat told the Hurriyet Daily News &
Economic Review on Friday.

Despite its apprehension, Ankara says the process is ongoing and
talks will continue.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held a meeting with Sarkisian in Kiev
on Thursday where the two coincidentally attended the inauguration
of Ukraine’s newly elected President Victor Yanukovych.

The talks lasted more than one hour although they were only scheduled
for five minutes, the Daily News learned from diplomatic sources.

The meeting’s unexpected length, along with Sarkisian’s assurances
on the normalization process, is viewed by Ankara as an encouraging
sign although it is concerned with the contradictions in Armenia’s
words and deeds, according to diplomatic sources.

The Kiev tête-a-tête marked the first encounter since the Armenian
constitutional court made a controversial ruling that drew strong
criticism from Turkey. The decision, which referred to the Armenian
Declaration of Independence that categorizes the 1915 killings of
Armenians as genocide, has already slowed the progress in normalizing
ties between Ankara and Yerevan.

The process was further dealt a blow by the passing of amendments by
the Armenian parliament that would facilitate Yerevan’s scrapping of
the protocols by permitting Sarkisian to suspend ratification and
withdraw the country from international agreements. The amendments
were passed by a vote of 70 to 4.

Ratification of the protocols

While Turkey is closely watching the process in Armenia, Yerevan has
repeatedly said the fence-mending protocols will not be put to a vote
before they are ratified by the Turkish Parliament, an announcement
that was unappreciated by Ankara.

"I cannot understand the basis of the Armenian claim that one of the
parties concerned would ratify the agreements before the other party.

There is nothing about Turkey’s pre-approval in either the protocols’
texts or under international law," Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak
Ozugergin told the Daily News.

The signing of the deals was hailed internationally as a key step in
overcoming the decades of enmity between Turkey and Armenia.

Ratification by both countries’ parliaments, however, stalled as the
two sides accused each other of attempting to modify the deal.

Despite this, Turkish diplomatic sources said the negotiations would
continue, adding that dialogue was one of the major principles of
Turkish foreign policy