ARMENIA HALTS RATIFICATION OF PROTOCOLS ON DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH TURKEY
ITAR-TASS, Russia
February 16, 2015 Monday 08:17 PM GMT+4
YEREVAN February 16.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on Monday asked the country’s
parliament speaker to withdraw from the parliament’s agenda accords
meant to restore diplomatic ties with Turkey
In a letter to Parliament Speaker Galust Sahakyan, Sargsyan said
that Armenia would not ratify the protocols on the establishment of
diplomatic relations and development of bilateral relations, earlier
submitted to Armenia’s National Assembly for ratification, because of
the “preconditions” that Turkey was putting in place before ratifying
its part of the deal.
“About six years have passed since the protocols between Armenia and
Turkey were signed,” the president said, noting Armenia’s “consistent”
efforts to bring the accords into being.
“But we must point to a lack of political will among Turkish
authorities, distortion of the letter and spirit of the protocols and
continuous attempts to lay down preconditions,” he said, adding that
ahead of the 2015 centennial commemoration of the Armenian genocide,
a policy of genocide denial and editing history “was gaining a new
momentum”.
“Therefore, I have made a decision to recall from the National
Assembly the protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations
and development of relations between Armenia and Turkey, signed in
Zurich on October 10, 2009,” Sargsyan said.
The protocols aim to establish diplomatic ties between the countries
and re-open their common border, which has been closed since 1993.
Even though Armenia and Turkey share a 330-kilometre-long border,
the neighbours have no diplomatic ties.
Relations between the countries have been overshadowed by the mass
killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One. Armenians
have campaigned for the killings to be recognised internationally as
an act of genocide – and more than 20 countries have done so. Turkey
admits that many Armenians were killed but says the deaths were part
of the widespread fighting that took place in World War One.
In another sign of tensions, relations have been complicated by
Turkish support for Azerbaijan in its armed conflict with Armenia
over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
As preconditions for normalising bilateral relations, Ankara
urged Yerevan to stop pressing for the international recognition
of the Armenian genocide as well as to pull out its forces from
Nagorno-Karabakh.