Itar-Tass, Russia
March 13 2010

Armenia to ratify bilateral protocols after Turkey – speaker

13.03.2010, 04.31

YEREVAN, March 13 (Itar-Tass) — The Armenian parliament will ratify
the Armenian-Turkish protocols only after the Turkish parliament has
done that, the speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly, Onik Abramian,
said on Friday, as he received visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald
Tusk.

The protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations and on the
principles of bilateral relations have been submitted to the
parliaments of both countries for ratification. On January 12 the
Constitutional Court of Armenia recognized both documents as
constitutional.

Armenia and Turkey share a 330-kilometer-long border, but have not
established diplomatic relations to this day. As a pre-condition for
the normalization of bilateral relations Ankara demanded that Yerevan
should give up steps to press for the international recognition of the
very instance of genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
Also, it wants Armenia to curtail support for Nagorno-Karabakh in its
conflict with Azerbaijan, as well as return to Azerbaijan the
territories it occupies. According to foreign economic experts, the
closed border and indirect cargo traffic cost Armenia
300-400-million-dollar losses a year.

When elected Armenia’s president in 2008, Serzh Sargsyan came out with
the initiative of normalizing relations with Turkey. That policy
earned wide support form the international community. At the
invitation of Armenia’s leadership Turkish President Abdullah Gul on
September 6, 2008 paid a brief several-hours-long visit to Yerevan for
a 2010 World Soccer Cup qualifier. That was the first-ever visit by a
Turkish head of state to Armenia. On October 14 last year the city of
Bursa, Turkey, hosted a return match and Serzh Sargsyan went there for
the event at President Gul’ s invitation. The exchange was promptly
dubbed as `football diplomacy.’

On October 12 last year the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey
gathered for a ceremony, attended by the foreign ministers of Russia
and France and the US Secretary of State, to put their signatures to
Armenian-Turkish protocols on the establishment of diplomatic
relations and on the principles of bilateral relations.

`The international recognition of and condemnation of the genocide of
Armenians for the Armenian people and for the republic of Armenia is a
matter of historical justice,’ Sargsyan said. He believes that the
process of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations by no means
signifies an end to the efforts to press for the international
genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

The Armenian leader believes `today is the right time to display the
determination, to take a long stride forward in bilateral relations
and to let future generations inherit a stable and safe region.’

The Armenian authorities’ decision to normalize relations with Turkey
sparked a mixed response inside the country and the foreign diasporas,
which regard themselves as a result of the 1915 genocide. In protest
against this decision the Dashnaktsutyun party quit the government
coalition and declared it was going into opposition.