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YEREVAN
(RFE/RL)–Armenia on Thursday explicitly threatened to walk away
from its landmark agreements with Turkey if Ankara continues to
make their implementation conditional on the resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
President Serzh Sarkisian issued the warning
in response to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
latest linkage between the normalization of Turkish-Armenian
relations and a Karabakh settlement acceptable to Azerbaijan.
“I am stating again that the Republic of
Armenia is prepared to properly honor its international
commitments. Namely, to ratify the Turkish-Armenian protocols,”
Sarkisian told a joint news conference with his visiting Latvian
counterpart, Valdis Zatlers.
“But you will recall that I have also stated
before that if Turkey drags out the ratification of the
protocols, then Armenia will immediately make use of
possibilities stemming from international law,” he said. “And so
I am declaring now that I have instructed relevant state bodies
to prepare amendments to those of our laws that pertain to the
signing, ratification and abrogation of international
agreements.”
The two protocols signed in Zurich in October
commit the two neighbors to establish diplomatic relations and
reopen their border within two months of the documents’ entry
into force, which in turn is contingent on their ratification by
the Armenian and Turkish parliaments.
Although the protocols make no direct
reference to Karabakh, Turkish leaders have made clear that
Turkey’s Grand National Assembly will not endorse them unless
Armenia agrees to a resolution of the Karabakh conflict
acceptable to Azerbaijan. Erdogan, whose government has a clear
majority in the assembly, reiterated that precondition after
talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House on
Monday.
“Turkey’s objective is to link
Turkish-Armenian relations with the Nagorno-Karabakh problem,”
Sarkisian said, commenting on Erdogan’s statements. “I must once
again repeat that those attempts are a priori doomed to
failure.”
Sarkisian set no deadlines for the Turkish
ratification of the agreements welcomed by the international
community. Like Obama and other top U.S. officials, he has
previously stressed the need for their implementation within a
“reasonable time frame.” According to some pro-government
politicians in Armenia, by that Yerevan means the beginning of
the next spring.
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