US, FRANCE PUT BRAVE FACE ON ARMENIA’S SUSPENSION OF TURKEY ACCORDS

news.az
April 23 2010
Azerbaijan

Philip Gordon Washington is glad that Armenia has decided to suspend,
rather than cancel altogether, the protocols on rapprochement with
Turkey.

The US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs,
Philip Gordon, commented on the announcement by President Serzh
Sargsyan that he was suspending ratification of the protocols in the
Armenian parliament.

‘We note President Sargsyan’s announcement that Armenia will suspend
the discussion of the protocols in its National Assembly,’ Gordon
said in Tallinn, where he is attending the NATO Ministerial meeting,
News.Am reported.

‘President Sargsyan’s announcement makes clear that Armenia has not
ended the process but has suspended it until the Turkish side is ready
to move forward. We applaud President Sargsyan’s decision to continue
to work towards a vision of peace, stability, and reconciliation. We
believe that the normalization process carries important benefits for
Turkey and Armenia as well as the wider Caucasus region. We continue
to urge both sides to keep the door open to pursuing efforts at
reconciliation and normalization,’ Gordon said.

His remarks were echoed by US Assistant Secretary of State Philip
Crowley at the daily press briefing on Wednesday.

‘I don’t think we’re surprised by the announcement by President
Sargsyan,’ Crowley said, according to the transcript of the briefing
published on the State Department website. ‘We had intensive meetings
with the Armenians and the Turks here in Washington. We’ve had ongoing
contacts with Azerbaijan as well. And we understand that there’s –
we had – that both sides had reached a – I won’t say impasse, but
kind of reached a hurdle in the process regarding the ratification
of the protocols.

‘I think we’re encouraged that neither side has walked away from the
process, but I think we all recognize that we’ll just need some time
to perhaps create some new momentum that allows the process to move
forward. So I think this is something that the Armenians had hinted
to us that they were prepared to do, and so we’re not surprised by
the announcement.’

Asked whether he was afraid that the rapprochement process would
collapse, Philip Crowley said, ‘Well, I think that we are actually
encouraged that, both in the case of Armenia and Turkey, both sides
have taken pains to make sure the process doesn’t collapse. That
gives us some reason for optimism that over the long term we can
find ways to come back to it and try to push forward the protocols
again. That was our message to both Turkey and Armenia during the
sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit: Keep the process going;
if you don’t think that this is the right time, that’s fine, we’ll
step back and re-evaluate how to move forward.’

France

In a communique published on the presidential website, Nicolas Sarkozy
welcomed Armenia’s continuing involvement in the normalization process
with Turkey.

‘The president of the republic welcomes the confirmation by the
Armenian head of state of his engagement in favour of the normalization
of Turkish-Armenian relations, despite the difficulties encountered
on both sides in the process of ratifying the protocols signed on 10
October 2009 in Zurich,’ the communique said.

‘France encourages the Armenian and Turkish authorities to
maintain dialogue and redouble their efforts to achieve rapidly
the implementation of the protocols which will make a significant
contribution to peace and security in the whole region.’