TURKEY COOL TO ARMENIA’S DECISION TO HALT RATIFICATION OF PROTOCOLS

Hurriyet Daily News
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April 22 2010
Turkey

Yerevan’s call to halt ratification of an accord on normalizing ties
has Turkey evaluating the possible legal and political repercussions,
and prompted the country’s leader to reiterate his commitment to the
normalization process.

"It is up to them to decide how they want to move with the ratification
process," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters
in Ankara on Thursday. "I have expressed our loyalty to the protocols
on numerous occasions. We will press ahead with the process on the
principle that treaties are binding."

The prime minister’s remarks came as Armenia’s ruling coalition
announced earlier Thursday that it was halting ratification of
the peace accord on account of Turkey’s refusal to ratify the text
"without preconditions and in a reasonable timeframe."

Soon after the coalition parties’ statement, Armenian President Serge
Sarkisian confirmed his country’s freezing of the ratification of
the protocols with neighboring Turkey.

The coalition, which holds the majority in the Armenian parliament,
described as "unacceptable" recent statements by Erdogan linking the
process of ratifying the protocols to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute
between Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to a report by Agence
France-Presse. The declaration was made by the ruling Republican,
Prosperous Armenia and Country of Law parties.

In Tallinn, a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the
government had not yet received any official statement about the
accords.

"What we are doing now is evaluating the content of this statement,"
ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin told the Hurriyet Daily News &
Economic Review in the Estonian capital, where Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu was attending a NATO meeting. Ozugergin added that Turkey
is also discussing what steps it could take in the upcoming period.

Following the Armenian statement, Davutoglu called Erdogan to inform
him about the developments. In Ankara, Erdogan said his country’s
stance concerning the ratification of the protocols is clear. "How
the ratification process could move forward and how a comprehensive
peace objective can be achieved in the region has been explained to
the parties concerned."

Turkey and Armenia signed a deal in October to establish diplomatic
ties and open their border in a step toward ending decades of
hostility over Armenian allegations that Ottoman Turks committed
genocide against Armenians, a claim that Turkey rejects.

The deal, comprised of two protocols, needs parliamentary ratification
to take effect. The reconciliation process has since stalled, with
both sides questioning each other’s commitment to peace.

Three points

Early analyses made by Turkish diplomats on the ruling Armenian
coalition’s decision are based on the timing of the announcement as
well as its legal and political dimensions.

The statement came just two days before April 24, the day Armenians
mark the events of 1915, which they consider genocide. On the same
day, a number of countries, including the United States, issue annual
statements to commemorate the Armenian deaths.

"The timing of the statement is important. They are trying to force
Obama to be straighter in his statement," a senior Turkish diplomat
told the Daily News. Last year, U.S. President Barack Obama did not
use the word "genocide" in his April 24 statement, but described the
1915 incidents as "one of the great atrocities of the 20th century."

Following a meeting with Obama last week in Washington, Erdogan said
he was sure that the U.S. president would not use the word "genocide"
in his statement this year.

A group of experts at the Turkish Foreign Ministry have already begun
to look into the meaning of the statement and how it could affect
Turkey’s legal position.

Political consequences will be felt in the ongoing normalization
process, but the move could also be a tactical one to mobilize
opposition parties to force the government in Turkey to withdraw the
protocols from Parliament.

‘Right decision’

A senior official from the Dashnaktsutyun party, which left the
ruling coalition over its opposition to the normalization efforts,
hailed the move, saying, "the Sarkisian administration finally made
the right decision."

"Armenia will never yield to Erdogan’s preconditions, and never
back down on the Karabakh issue or the international recognition of
genocide," Vahan Hovanesian told the Daily News in Yerevan.

David Shahnazarian from the Armenian National Congress also criticized
what he called Turkey’s "never-ending" pre-conditions. "Under the
influence of Azerbaijan, Turkey cannot make progress on the protocols."

Ruben Safrastian, the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies
at the Republic of Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences, said the
protocols had already come to a halt and put the responsibility for
that on Turkey. "We have missed the historic opportunity between Turkey
and Armenia. We must initiate a new process urgently, otherwise the
Turkey-Armenia relationship will head to an irreversible period,"
Safrastian told the Daily News.

Davutoglu was scheduled to meet Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton in Tallinn on the sidelines of the NATO foreign
ministers’ meeting. A senior diplomat confirmed that Davutoglu
was planning to raise this issue during the meeting. "It is equally
important to see how Americans interpret this statement," the diplomat
said. "That will help us complete our own analyses."