Armenian lawmakers seek to freeze deal with Turkey

Associated Press Worldstream
April 22, 2010 Thursday 12:05 PM GMT

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Armenian troops withdrawn from Ngorno-Karabakh.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 United States 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.