ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT HALTS NORMALIZATION PROCESS WITH TURKEY

Monsters and Critics.com
April 22 2010

Yerevan/Istanbul – Armenia’s ruling coalition Thursday said it
is halting in parliament the ratification process of historic
normalization accords signed with Turkey last year.

Turkey and Armenia signed a set of protocols last October which were
expected to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The land border, which Turkey closed in 1993 during Armenia’s war
with Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, would also
be reopened.

But the protocols are still awaiting ratification by the parliaments
in Ankara and Yerevan, with each side accusing the other of adding
new conditions after the agreement was struck.

A statement issued by the Armenian ruling coalition said that
continuing the ratification process in parliament was ‘pointless’
in view of Turkey’s refusal to ‘fulfil the requirement to ratify the
accord without preconditions in a reasonable time.’

‘The political majority in the national assembly considers statements
from the Turkish side in recent days as unacceptable, specifically
those by Prime Minister Erdogan, who has again made the ratification
of the Armenia-Turkish protocols by the Turkish parliament directly
dependent on a resolution over Nagorno-Karabakh,’ it continued.

Murat Mercan, chairman of the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs
committee, said Ankara still supports the accords.

‘We are very supportive of the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement and we
are encouraging Armenia to solve its problem with Azerbaijan and we
expect a comprehensive solution in the Caucasus,’ Mercan said.

Although the accords have yet to make it out of committee in Ankara,
Mercan said they are not ‘frozen.’

‘The protocols are waiting in my drawer to be overseen by the
committee,’ he said.