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 YEREVAN
(RFE/RL)–U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Armenia
and Turkey to complete the normalization of bilateral relations
within a “reasonable” period of time as she met with the two
countries’ foreign ministers late on Monday.
The Turkish-Armenian dialogue was a key focus
of her separate talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu and Armenia’s Eduard Nalbandian held on the sidelines
of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Clinton praised both governments for their
“strong commitment” to pushing forward the process hailed by the
international community and United States in particular. “I want
to reiterate our very strong support for the normalization
process that is going on between Armenia and Turkey, which we
have long said should take place without preconditions and
within a reasonable timeframe,” she said after meeting
Nalbandian.
Clinton later delivered a similar message to
Davutoglu, according to U.S. officials cited by Western news
agencies. “When we say reasonable ‘time frame,’ we mean just
that, that it’s not just the process that we want to see,” U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon was reported to tell
journalists. “We welcome the process, but we also want to see a
conclusion to the process and that’s what we’re underscoring
when we say that.”
Turkey has linked the normalization of
Turkish-Armenian ties to a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Armenian leaders fear that
Ankara could still avoid implementing two fence-mending
agreements with Yerevan if international efforts to settle the
dispute yield no breakthrough in the coming months.
The agreements, which envisage the
establishment of diplomatic relations and the reopening of the
Turkish-Armenian border, are due to be signed by October 14. The
documents need to be ratified by the parliaments of both
countries before they can take effect.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry,
Nalbandian thanked Clinton for Washington’s strong support for
the ongoing Turkish-Armenian rapprochement that began shortly
after President Serzh Sarkisian took office in April 2008.
Clinton underscored that support when she telephoned Sarkisian
to discuss the process on September 19. It was their second
phone conversation in a month.
In Gordon’s words, Washington hopes that
Sarkisian will accept Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s
invitation to watch with him the return match of the two
countries’ national football teams that will be played in the
Turkish city of Bursa on October 14. “We think it would be a
good thing if he attended it, reciprocating the attendance of
the Turkish president of the match when it was in Armenia,” the
diplomat said.
“This is a difficult process that faces some
political opposition in both places and it’s hard for both
governments,” added Gordon. “It shouldn’t wait for other things
to get done, or be linked to other things. It should go ahead.”
Nalbandian sounded cautiously optimistic on
that score in his speech at the General Assembly earlier on
Friday. “The process of the normalization of the
Armenian-Turkish relations … promises to bear fruit despite all
difficulties,” he said.
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