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 WASHINGTON,
DC – Less than 24 hours after the signing of the controversial
Turkey-Armenia Protocols, Turkey’s top leaders outlined their
preconditions to the opening of the Turkey-Armenia border, once
again connecting the resolution of the Karabagh conflict to
Ankara’s willingness to lift its illegal blockade of Armenia,
reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
“Once again, Turkey’s leaders have made it
abundantly clear, most recently in their public pledge to keep
their blockade in place until Azerbaijan agrees to its lifting,
that the Protocols represent simply another vehicle for them to
impose pressure on Yerevan and secure concessions from the
Armenian people,” stated ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
“The Obama Administration, rather than continuing to lean on
Armenia to accept agreements that threaten her security and cast
doubt on the Armenian Genocide, should call out Turkey for its
cynical and transparent manipulation of the Protocols process to
advance its anti-Armenian policies.”
According to the Wall Street Journal and
hundreds of similar reports, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan told members of his ruling Justice and
Development Party on Sunday, “As long as Armenia has not
withdrawn from Azerbaijani territory that it is occupying,
Turkey cannot have a positive attitude on this subject [border
opening].”
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
reported, today, that Prime Minister Erdogan assured Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev that “further progress in the Karabakh
peace process will be a determining factor in the consideration
by the Turkish parliament of the Turkish-Armenian agreements.”
RFE/RL also reports that a Turkish Embassy press statement was
even more explicit. “As our country’s Prime Minister repeatedly
stated in his earlier statements, the opening of the
Turkish-Armenian border will be impossible as long as the
occupied Azerbaijani territories are not liberated,” read the
Turkish Embassy statement. “The opening of the border is quite
a lengthy process… This process must run parallel to the process
of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and liberating the
occupied Azerbaijani territories.”
The ANCA joined with Armenians around the
world in opposing the Turkey-Armenia Protocols, citing, among
other reservations, Turkey’s efforts to use the document to tilt
the Nagorno Karabagh negotiations in favor of Azerbaijan, as
well as its use of the Protocols to establish a “historical
commission” which would question the historical truth of the
Armenian Genocide.
Upon the signing of the document, ANCA
Chairman Ken Hachikian commented, “President Obama, rather than
honoring his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, went in
exactly the opposite direction, applying the full force of our
nation’s diplomacy to twist the arm of a landlocked and
blockaded Armenia – a nation still struggling with the brutal
legacy of its near-destruction – into accepting a dangerous set
of protocols that call into question this very crime against
humanity.”
Armenian President Serge Sarkisian is set to
travel to Turkey on October 14th to attend a soccer match
between the two countries. The agenda will reportedly include
discussion of the protocols ratification process.
For more information, read:
Turkey Again Links Armenia Moves With
Karabakh | 10/12/09
http://www.armenialiberty.org/content/article/1849079.html
Turkey Reassures Azerbaijan Over
Armenian Border | 10/13/09
http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/1850769.html
Hurdles to Turkey-Armenia Pact |
10/12/09
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125528674209778731.html
ANCA Statement on the signing of the
Turkey-Armenia Protocols
http://www.anca.org/press_releases/press_releases.php?prid=1762
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