Agence France Presse
April 22, 2010 Thursday 10:09 AM GMT

Turkey mulls response to Armenia deal halt: spokesman

Ankara, April 22 2010

Turkey is studying what steps to take after Armenia’s ruling coalition
announced it was halting ratification of a historic accord on
normalising bilateral relations, a Turkish diplomat said Thursday.

"We are evaluating the content of this (Armenian) statement and what
it means" legally and politically, foreign ministry spokesman Burak
Ozugergin told AFP.

"In this context, we are also discussing steps that could be taken in
the coming period," he added, without elaborating.

In their statament earlier Thursday, the three parties that form a
majority in Armenia’s parliament accused Turkey of a refusal to ratify
the accord "without preconditions and in a reasonable timeframe."

The coalition described as "unacceptable" recent statements by Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan which it said linked the process of
ratifying the protocols to the Nagorny-Karabakh dispute between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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

The deal — comprised of two protocols — need parliamentary
ratification to come into effect, but the reconciliation process has
since stalled with both sides questioning each others’ commitment to
peace.