Agence France Presse
April 22, 2010 Thursday 3:16 PM GMT

Armenia halts ratification of Turkey deal

Yerevan, April 22 2010

Armenia said 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 that 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."

The coalition described as "unacceptable" recent statements by Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that it said linked the process of
ratifying the protocols "with the process of settling the
Karabakh-Azerbaijani conflict".

Erdogan refused to back down, saying in response to the statement that
Turkey remained faithful to reconciliation with Armenia but insisted
on conditions.

"We have expressed on several occasions our commitment to the letter
and spirit of the protocols and the target of putting them into
practice," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara.

"We have also explained on several occasions… how the ratification
process can be advanced and how we can achieve the target of
comprehensive peace in the region. Our determination remains
unchanged," he added.

Erdogan’s mention of regional peace was a clear reference to Turkey’s
position linking the reconciliation with Nagorny Karabakh.

Armenia and Turkey signed a landmark deal in October to establish
diplomatic ties and re-open their border after decades of hostility
over Ottoman-era massacres of Armenians during World War I.

But the deal, which needed parliamentary ratification in both
countries to take effect, faltered amid mutual accusations that the
other side is not committed to reconciliation.

Analysts warned the decision to freeze ratification had dashed what
little hope remained of the reconciliation process quickly moving
forward.

"It’s a big step backwards for the process and I’m not sure it can
continue in its current form," Yerevan-based political analyst Gevorg
Pogosian said.

The announcement of the freeze came two days before Armenians mark the
95th anniversary of the 1915-1917 massacres, which they insist
constituted genocide. Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin
perished in deportations and orchestrated killings during World War I
but Turkey rejects the genocide label and says that 300,000 to 500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks perished in civil strife as the
Ottoman Empire crumbled.

Ankara accused Yerevan of undermining the reconciliation efforts after
a January ruling of Armenia’s constitutional court cleared the deal
but said it could not contradict Yerevan’s official line that
Armenians were victims of genocide.

Yerevan for its part has repeatedly slammed Turkey’s linking of the
deal with the dispute over Karabakh.

Turkey sealed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity
with Azerbaijan after ethnic Armenian separatists, backed by Yerevan,
seized the Nagorny Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts
from Baku in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress