ARMENIA HALTS RATIFICATION DEAL WITH TURKEY

The News International
April 23 2010
Pakistan

YEREVAN: Armenia said ON Thursday it was halting ratification of an
accord on normalising ties with Turkey, dealing a critical blow to
the two countries’ efforts to overcome decades of hostility.

President Serzh Sarkisian said the Armenian parliament would no longer
consider ratifying the US-backed deal, but he insisted Armenia was
not withdrawing fully from the peace process.

"We have decided… not to exit the process for the time being,
but rather, to suspend the procedure of ratifying the protocols. We
believe this to be in the best interests of our nation," Sarkisian
said in a televised address.

"Armenia shall retain her signature under the protocols, because we
desire to maintain the existing momentum for normalising relations,
because we desire peace," he added.

Sarkisian lashed out at Turkey for trying to set "preconditions" on
the deal, in a clear reference to Ankara’s position that the process
cannot move forward without progress in Armenia’s conflict with
Turkish ally Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region.

"For a whole year, Turkey’s senior officials have not spared public
statements in the language of preconditions," he said. "From this
moment on, we consider the current phase of normalisation exhausted."

Armenia’s ruling coalition of three parties had earlier announced
it was freezing ratification of the deal because "the Turkish side
is refusing to ratify the protocols without preconditions and in a
reasonable timeframe."