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ANKARA: Ankara Not Satisfied With Yerevan's Assurances

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  • ANKARA: Ankara Not Satisfied With Yerevan's Assurances

    ANKARA NOT SATISFIED WITH YEREVAN'S ASSURANCES

    Hurriyet
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews. com/n.php?n=ankara-not-satisfied-with-yerevan8217s -assurance-2010-02-26
    Feb 26 2010
    Turkey

    As Turkey and Armenia attempt to put decades of enmity behind them
    with a slow-moving normalization process, Ankara has complained that
    Armenia has contradicted itself. Armenia's president says his country
    is committed to the process, but the parliament has made it easier
    for him to withdraw the country from international agreements

    Turkey remains far from satisfied on Armenian assurances that it is
    committed to normalizing the two countries' troubled ties, according
    to Turkish diplomatic sources.

    Ankara says Armenia's attitude has been contradictory on the two
    protocols designed to establish diplomatic relations between the
    neighbors. President Serge Sarkisian has expressed his commitment to
    the agreements, but his country's parliament has passed a bill that
    would make it easier for Yerevan to ultimately abandon the accords.

    "Confusing signals are coming from the Armenian side," a senior
    Turkish Foreign Ministry diplomat told the Hurriyet Daily News &
    Economic Review on Friday.

    Despite its apprehension, Ankara says the process is ongoing and
    talks will continue.

    Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held a meeting with Sarkisian in Kiev
    on Thursday where the two coincidentally attended the inauguration
    of Ukraine's newly elected President Victor Yanukovych.

    The talks lasted more than one hour although they were only scheduled
    for five minutes, the Daily News learned from diplomatic sources.

    The meeting's unexpected length, along with Sarkisian's assurances
    on the normalization process, is viewed by Ankara as an encouraging
    sign although it is concerned with the contradictions in Armenia's
    words and deeds, according to diplomatic sources.

    The Kiev tête-a-tête marked the first encounter since the Armenian
    constitutional court made a controversial ruling that drew strong
    criticism from Turkey. The decision, which referred to the Armenian
    Declaration of Independence that categorizes the 1915 killings of
    Armenians as genocide, has already slowed the progress in normalizing
    ties between Ankara and Yerevan.

    The process was further dealt a blow by the passing of amendments by
    the Armenian parliament that would facilitate Yerevan's scrapping of
    the protocols by permitting Sarkisian to suspend ratification and
    withdraw the country from international agreements. The amendments
    were passed by a vote of 70 to 4.

    Ratification of the protocols

    While Turkey is closely watching the process in Armenia, Yerevan has
    repeatedly said the fence-mending protocols will not be put to a vote
    before they are ratified by the Turkish Parliament, an announcement
    that was unappreciated by Ankara.

    "I cannot understand the basis of the Armenian claim that one of the
    parties concerned would ratify the agreements before the other party.

    There is nothing about Turkey's pre-approval in either the protocols'
    texts or under international law," Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak
    Ozugergin told the Daily News.

    The signing of the deals was hailed internationally as a key step in
    overcoming the decades of enmity between Turkey and Armenia.

    Ratification by both countries' parliaments, however, stalled as the
    two sides accused each other of attempting to modify the deal.

    Despite this, Turkish diplomatic sources said the negotiations would
    continue, adding that dialogue was one of the major principles of
    Turkish foreign policy
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