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YEREVAN—The foreign ministers of Armenia and
Turkey had what appeared to be a tense phone conversation
Wednesday that further dimmed prospects for the normalization of
Turkish-Armenian relations, reported Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty.
The conversation, initiated by Armenia’s
Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian, was in response to Tuesday’s
Turkish Foreign Ministry statement, which claimed that last
week’s Constitutional Court ruling on the Armenia-Turkey
protocols placed “preconditions and restrictive provisions which
impair the letter and spirit of the Protocols.”
Nalbandian was quick to respond Tuesday,
pledging a phone call to his counterpart to express
“bewilderment” of the Turkish position, since from the onset of
the normalization process, Turkey has imposed preconditions
saying that the process would not move forward without a
Karabakh peace deal that favors Azerbaijan.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry,
Nalbandian told Davutoglu that such statements are “creating the
impression of a search for artificial pretexts” for Turkey’s
refusal to establish diplomatic relations and open its border
with Armenia, reported RFE/RL.
A ministry statement said he urged the Turks
to stick to “the letter and spirit of the protocols” and “move
forward fast.” It said Nalbandian insisted that the
Constitutional Court ruling only testifies to the Armenian
side’s desire to have them implemented “without undue delays.”
Davutoglu stood by this claim during the
phone call with his Armenian counterpart. A Turkish Foreign
Ministry spokesman was reported to say that Davutoglu also
claimed that the ratification process is at a far more advanced
stage in Turkey than in Armenia, reported RFE/RL.
On January 12, Armenia’s high Court ruled
that the agreements were in line with the country’s
Constitution. The Court also said that the protocols could not
have any bearing with the ongoing Karabakh peace process nor
should they impede the international recognition of the Armenian
Genocide. To reinforce the latter point, the court cited Article
11 of Armenia’s 1990 Declaration of Independence which 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.”
Despite Turkey’s claims to the contrary, the
Turkish Foreign Ministry statement aims to further Ankara’s
preconditions on the protocols and find an escape route from its
commitments in the international community, Armenian
Revolutionary Federation Political Affairs Director Giro Manoyan
told a press conference in Yerevan Wednesday.
“The decision of the Armenian Constitutional
Court and the subsequent statement by the Turkish Foreign
Ministry will lead to new developments,” said Manoyan who did
not rule out the possibility of phone calls to Armenia’s
leadership by the Secretary of State or the Vice-President to
“secure assurances.”
He also presumed that Turkey may take action
toward ratification of the Protocols in March-April 2010. “If
Turkey drags out the process, Armenia will have to say it quits
negotiations.”
Manoyan asserted that the Constitutional
Court could have used the same provisions to rule the protocols
unconstitutional, adding that the points outlined by the Court
could serve as a basis for the parliament to not ratify the
documents.
The ARF leader said that the party’s
parliamentary faction was prepared to introduce legislation,
which would require the inclusion of the Court’s rationale in
the wording of the protocols.
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