ARMENIA SEEKS TO FREEZE TURKEY DEAL RATIFICATION

Wall Street Journal
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April 22 2010

YEREVAN, Armenia–Armenia’s governing coalition wants to freeze the
ratification of an agreement to normalize ties and reopen the border
with neighboring Turkey, it said Thursday.

The coalition accused Turkey of dragging its feet in ratifying the
October deal by demanding the Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute over
Nagorno-Karabakh be settled first.

The coalition said Armenia should suspend the process until Turkey
moves forward with its ratification without preconditions.

In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had "taken note"
of the Armenian coalition’s decision and said his country remained
loyal to the agreement to normalize ties.

"It is up to them to decide how they want to move with the ratification
process," he said. "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."

Armenia’s President Serge Sarkisian is expected to speak on the
issue Thursday.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 to protest Armenia’s
war with neighboring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave
within Azerbaijan under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since
the 1994 end of a six-year conflict that killed about 30,000 people.

Turkey, which shares ethnic and cultural bonds with Azerbaijan,
wants Armenian troops withdrawn from Ngorno-Karabakh.

Mediation efforts by Russia, France, the U.S. and the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe have failed to resolve the dispute.

The lack of resolution has tied up development in the energy-rich
South Caucasus.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress