TURKEY’S TOP DIPLOMAT MEETS PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA WITH 4 QUESTIONS

HULIQ
April 7 2010
SC

Turkey this morning has sent one of its top diplomats to Armenia for a
meeting with the foreing minster and the president of its northeastern
neighbor for developing the bilateral relations severely damaged
95 years ago by the Armenian genocide, which Turkey denies. Foreign
Ministry’s undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu was just received with
the Armenian FM Edward Nalbandyan and the president of the country
Serzh Sargsyan.

The official sources say that Sinirlioglu was sent to Armenia to
discuss a range of issues with the Armenian side about the bilateral
relations. Unofficial sources say Erdogan has sent his Foreing
Ministry’s undersecretary to convince the the president of Armenia
to have a meeting on the sidelines of Obama’s nuclear summit held in
Washington D.C. next week.

CNN Turk and Hurriyet report that Sinirlioglu is in Armenia wanting
to discuss four important points all related to the Armenian Turkish
relations. Judging from them April will be a very busy month and we
may see some more diplomatic traffic as well as possible parliamentary
ratification of the protocols signed in Zurich last year to improve
relations, open the borders for trade and open embassies.

Disagreements between Armenia and Turkey

First topic in Sinirlioglu agenda is to discuss the disagreements that
have come forward in the relations between Armenia and Turkey. Armenia
says there should not be any conditions for ratification of the
protocols signed to improve relations last year. Turkey, siding with
Azerbaijan (with which it shares cultural and ethnic common ties)
says it wants to see some progress on the Nagorno Karabakh issue
to improve relations with Armenia. US, Russia and Europe insist on
moving forward with the protocol ratification unconditionally. For
some reason, Turkey asks unilateral concessions only from Armenia
and not from Azerbaijan, who has dragged Turkish foreign policy since
the beginning of the conflict 22 years ago.

Commitments to protocols

The second issue on Sinirlioglu’s agenda is to ensure the authorities
in Armenia that Turkey is committed to the protocols to normalize
relations with Armenia. So far this commitment has only been in words
and no direct steps have been taken to ratify the protocols in the
Turkish parliament. Instead, recently Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoghan
threatened to expel Armenian immigrants that illegally work in Turkey.

Expelling illegal workers is the right of each country, but when they
threaten to do so for a political reason, that at least is not ethical.

Steps need to be taken

Thus Sinirlioglu is in Armenia to discuss what steps can both
countries take to move the normalization process forward. Armenian
FM, in a released statement has told the Turkish envoy that the
country’s aproach to normalization is in line with the international
expectations. According to News.am the officials from the office of
the president of Armenia say that the president Sargsyan has told
Sinirlioglu that his country is committed to the protocols and expects
practical steps from Turkey toward ratification of these protocols
in the Turkish parliament.

Possibility of Arranging a Meeting

This meeting is already confirmed according to Turkish sources,
however negotiations about this issue are still in process and it’s
hard to confirm at this point. Yet the meeting is very likely.

Armenian News.am referring to Turkish Yeni Safak reports that the
president of Armenia and Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold
a meeting on the sidelines of April 12-13 summit on Global Nuclear
Security. If the meeting goes successfully we may see protocols
ratified and the border opened before April 24 when the Armenians
around the world commemorate the 95th sad anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. Nearly 1.5 million Armenians systematically were annihilated
and deported during the last days of the Ottoman Empire.

The prime minister of Turkey Mr. Erdogan, according to some observers,
is trying to save his face as he was not granted an audience with
president Obama during the nuclear summit next week. The message
for Turkey is clear: the signed protocols have no precondition and
they need to be ratified and normal relations started. Turkey does
not want to upset Azerbaijan and drags the issue. EU says to Turkey:
if you want to be an EU member get more civilized, open the borders
and allow free trade. No close borders in the 21st century.

Nearly 23 parliaments in the world have called the events that took
in 1915 as genocide. Recently Swedish parliament and the US House
subcommittee did the same. President Obama has promised to call
the events as genocide in his traditional April 24 message to the
Armenian powerful community in the U.S. Last year he used the Armenian
equivalent of the term.