|
 ANKARA
(RFE/RL)–Turkey will not normalize relations with Armenia before
a breakthrough in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, raising more
questions about the implementation of Turkish-Armenian
agreements signed the previous night.
“I want to reiterate once again that Turkey
cannot adopt a positive attitude unless Armenia withdraws from
occupied Azerbaijani territories,” he was reported to tell a
news conference held in Ankara after a high-level meeting of
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Erdogan made clear that an internationally
brokered agreement on Karabakh acceptable to Azerbaijan is
critical for the ratification by the Turkish parliament of the
two protocols envisaging that the establishment of diplomatic
relations and opening of the border between the two nations.
“If the problems between Azerbaijan and
Armenia are solved, then it will be easier for the Turkish
community to embrace the normalization of the relations between
Turkey and Armenia. Also, it will make it easier for the Turkish
parliament to adopt the protocols,” he said. The parliament and
the Turkish public will therefore be closely following the
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, he added.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who
signed the protocols with his Armenian counterpart Eduard
Nalbandian in Zurich late on Saturday, likewise linked their
ratification with a Karabakh settlement. “We, the government,
want the protocols to pass through Parliament but they need to
be submitted for approval in an appropriate psychological and
political atmosphere,” he told the state-run TRT television on
Sunday.
“Not only Karabakh but also the seven
Azerbaijani districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh are under
occupation. That should come to an end,” said Davutoglu.
The remarks came just hours after Azerbaijan
criticized Turkey for sealing a deal which it said “clouds the
spirit of brotherly relations” between the two Turkic countries.
“The normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia
before the withdrawal of Armenian troops from occupied Azeri
territory is in direct contradiction to the national interests
of Azerbaijan,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a
statement.
Official Yerevan did not immediately react to
the latest statements by the Turkish leaders. In a televised
addressed to the nation on Saturday, President Serzh Sarkisian
implicitly threatened to walk away from the agreements if Ankara
fails to complete the ratification process “within a reasonable
time frame.”
Sarkisian has for months been on the
defensive at home and in the Diaspora in the face of criticisms
over his pledges to make more concessions to Azerbaijan in the
fence-mending talks with the Turks. He has been anxious to
disprove any connection between the Karabakh issue and his
policy of rapprochement with Turkey, despite the two processes
having already been linked by Turkey.
That should explain why Nalbandian strongly
objected to a speech which Davutoglu planned to deliver during
the signing ceremony in Zurich attended by U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton and other foreign dignitaries. According
to the “Hurriyet Daily News” newspaper, Davutoglu would have
declared that the normalization of the historically strained
Turkish-Armenian relations “will lead to new reconciliations in
the South Caucasus.” The paper said the Turkish side, for its
part, protested against Nalbandian’s intention to refer to the
1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide in
his statement.
The dispute delayed the high-profile ceremony
by more than three hours. The two sides agreed not to make any
statements there in what appears to have been a compromise
personally brokered by Clinton. “We had a good night in Zurich,”
she said afterwards, according to the Associated Press news
agency.
U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly
telephoned Clinton to congratulate her on overcoming the
last-minute hitch that threatened to scuttle the deal welcomed
by both the West and Russia. “He was very excited, he felt like
this was a big step forward and wanted to check in,” the
Associated Press quoted an unnamed senior State Department
official as telling reporters aboard Clinton’s plane as she flew
from Zurich to London.
Both Obama and Clinton stated earlier that
the Turkish-Armenian agreements should be implemented “without
preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe.”
|
