ARMENIA HALTS TURKEY RECONCILIATION

Al-Jazeera
http://english.aljazeer a.net/news/europe/2010/04/2010422141716545832.html
April 22 2010
Qatar

Armenia has said it is suspending ratification of a reconciliation
deal with Turkey, but is not pulling out of negotiations entirely.

Serzh Sarksyan, the Armenian president, said in nationally broadcast
remarks on Thursday that the halt in the reconciliation process between
the two countries was due the current political atmosphere in Turkey.

"We shall consider moving forward when we are convinced that there
is a proper environment in Turkey and there is a leadership in Ankara
ready to re-engage in the normalisation process," he said.

Deadlock

The two countries signed a Swiss-brokered accord last October to
establish diplomatic ties and end decades of enmity.

Neither country’s parliament has approved the deal though.

Tensions between the two have risen recently, with Turkey last month
threatening to expelthousands of illegal Armenian workers from the
country.

That threat, from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister,
came in response to resolutions passed in the US and Sweden, which
branded the World War I killing of Armenians as genocide.

Erdogan said Armenia’s influential diaspora was behind those
resolutions and "unfortunately have a negative impact on our sincere
attitudes".

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in a systematic
extermination campaign during World War I as the Ottoman Empire
fell apart.

Turkey counters that between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians, and at
least as many Turks, were killed in civil strife when Armenians rose
up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian forces.