Following Ankara’s initial reaction to a ruling by the top Armenian court on protocols between the two countries expected to pave the way for the normalization of relations, the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers have exchanged views, but the issue remains unresolved. 
 
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian called his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoğlu on Wednesday to express concern and seek clarification over a statement released on Monday evening by the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Davutoğlu told Nalbandian that Armenia’s constitutional court’s Jan. 12 decision contains unacceptable preconditions, underlining that Turkey has adhered to the spirit of the protocols signed between them on Oct. 10 in Zurich last year and expects the same from the Armenian side.

The Turkish foreign minister also added that right after the documents were signed, a public awareness campaign was launched in Turkey and the protocols were sent to Parliament, whereas Armenia has not yet submitted the documents to its legislature.

Prior to calling his Turkish counterpart, Nalbandian had issued a statement saying, “I hope that with such a statement the Turkish side is not attempting to justify its continuous efforts in laying down preconditions and covering up its needless delays in the ratification process.”

According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s statement on Jan. 18, the Armenian constitutional court’s “grounds for decision” over the conformity of the protocols to their constitution “contain preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and spirit of the protocols” and “undermine the very reason for negotiating these protocols as well as their fundamental objective.”

Burak Özügergin, the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told Today’s Zaman that Armenia has taken the heart out of the protocols and created a new, restrictive situation. He further explained that on the one hand, the court had ruled to approve the protocols, which call for the establishment of a joint commission of historians to better understand past events, but on the other it refers to the Declaration of Independence of Armenia.

Paragraph 11 of the Declaration of Independence states, “The Republic of Armenia stands in support of the task of achieving international recognition of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.”

“Then why establish a commission of historians?” Özügergin said.

In the fifth paragraph of the Armenian court’s ruling it says that the protocols “cannot be interpreted or applied” in a way that would contradict the provisions of the preamble to Armenia’s constitution and the requirements of paragraph 11 of its Declaration of Independence.

Armenians say 1.5 million Armenians were killed during a systematic campaign in eastern Anatolia, while Turkey rejects the claims of genocide, saying the killings came as the Ottoman Empire was trying to quell civil strife and that Muslim Turks were also killed in the conflict.

The protocols do not specifically mention the massacres of 1915 but stipulate that the two sides agree to “implement a dialogue on the historical dimension with the aim to restore mutual confidence between the two nations, including an impartial scientific examination of the historical records and archives to define existing problems and formulate recommendations.”

Özügergin pointed out another issue of concern for the Turkish side — the main limitations the Armenian court has placed on the protocols in that the court made all clauses of the protocols conditional on the implementation of two main obligations: “establish diplomatic relations” and “open the common border.”

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with fellow country Azerbaijan during the fighting over the breakaway mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where Christian ethnic Armenians threw off Muslim Azeri rule with Armenian support in the early 1990s.

The Turkish spokesperson said they had therefore made these two actions a necessary prerequisite for the fulfillment of all other obligations to be undertaken by Armenia and Turkey. “This is against international agreements,” he said.

Joining the criticism, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that the court’s reference could harm efforts to end a century of enmity.

“The process will be damaged if it [the court’s decision] is not corrected,” he said at a news conference in Saudi Arabia during a state visit.

Turkey had not taken the protocol to its Constitutional Court, Erdoğan said: “We took it directly to our Parliament without making changes. We didn’t employ a mediator on the text. We didn’t carry out any read-between-the-lines operations. This is proof of our sincerity. Armenia has tried to change the text.”

Meanwhile, Harut Sassounian, a writer at the Armenian Weekly, commented that the constitutional court has limited some of the damaging aspects of the protocols.

“Of course, it would be far more preferable if parliament were to reject these protocols outright. Regrettably, this is unlikely, as parliament is dominated by pro-government deputies. If rejection is not a possibility, the president of Armenia and the parliament should at least consider specific reservations or changes to these protocols in line with the constitutional court’s decision,” he wrote.

On the other hand, Sergey Minasyan, deputy director of the Caucasus Institute, told NEWS.am that the court’s ruling should be only be viewed in a legal and domestic context.

Mensur Akgün, director of the Global Political Trends Center (GPoT) — a research unit at İstanbul Kültür University, said that the Armenian judiciary’s ruling on the protocols was a political one.

“In our part of the world, the judiciary likes to interfere in politics,” he told Today’s Zaman. “Although Turkey has rightful concerns, we can also say that Yerevan has played into Ankara’s hands.”
 
Source: Today’s Zaman
URL: www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-199207-normalization-with-armenia-at-risk-says-pm-erdogan.html

Filed under: Turkish Press