European Forum

Armenia warns of breakdown in reconciliation with Turkey

Armenia's Foreign Minister, Edward Nalbandian, warned today that historic efforts to establish ties with Turkey may break down, blaming Ankara for obstructing the process. "If Turkey is not ready to ratify the protocols, if it continues to speak in ultimatums, to set preconditions and to obstruct the process, then I do not exclude that negotiations will break down," Mr Nalbandian said at a press conference.

On 13 January Armenia’s Constitutional Court upheld the conformity of the Turkish-Armenian protocols singed in October 2009, with Armenia’s constitution. It indicated that the two protocols cannot have any bearing on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It also reaffirmed a clause in the 1990 Armenian declaration of independence which reads, “The Republic of Armenia stands in support of the task of achieving international recognition of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia". The Turks are particularly unhappy with this reaffirmation.

Harsh words
In a statement on 18 January, the Turkish Foreign Ministry construed this as “preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and spirit of the protocols.” In a phone call that Nalbandian had later this week with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish FM stood by this claim.

According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Nalbandian told Davutoglu that such statements are “creating the impression of a search for artificial pretexts” for Turkey’s refusal to establish diplomatic relations and open its border with Armenia. A ministry statement said he urged the Turks to stick to “the letter and spirit of the protocols” and “move forward fast.”

Also, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Yerevan will seriously harm the normalization process unless it “corrects” the Armenian court’s interpretation of the documents. “We took the protocols directly to our Parliament, without making changes […] This is a proof of our sincerity. Armenia has tried to change the text." Erdogan also made clear that Ankara will continue to link the Parliamentary ratification and implementation of the protocols with a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.

Historic protocols despite lack of progress
In October 2009, Nalbandian and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu signed the historic protocols, which could pave the way to diplomatic relations between the two countries. Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations and their border has been closed since 1993, after Armenia's invasion of 20 per cent of Azerbaijani territory. The territorial conflict, referred to as Nagorno-Karabakh, was tied to the normalization process after Turkish leaders warned it would be hard to pass the protocols without any progress toward a resolution to Karabakh.

Sources: Hurriyet Daily; Armenia Liberty