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Sarkisian Again Threatens To Scrap Turkish-Armenian Accords

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  • Sarkisian Again Threatens To Scrap Turkish-Armenian Accords

    SARKISIAN AGAIN THREATENS TO SCRAP TURKISH-ARMENIAN ACCORDS
    by Emil Danielyan

    Armenialiberty.org
    http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24312948.html
    Aug 30 2011

    President Serzh Sarkisian on Tuesday again threatened to formally annul
    Armenia's normalization agreements with Turkey if Ankara continues
    to link their parliamentary ratification with the Nagorno-Karabakh
    conflict.

    He indicated that Yerevan will wait for no more than several months
    for an unconditional normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations,
    which is envisaged by the two protocols signed in 2009.

    "The Turkish side has to understand that these protocols are not an
    open-ended opportunity," Sarkisian told an annual meeting in Yerevan
    of Armenian ambassadors and other senior diplomats.

    "Many of our [foreign] friends advised us to wait until the [June]
    parliamentary elections in Turkey," he said. "So in the next several
    months we will see whether there has been a change of approaches
    in Turkey after those elections. But frankly speaking, the past two
    months have not given us grounds for optimism."

    "On the basis of those observations, we will also decide our further
    steps regarding the protocols," he warned.

    Sarkisian already threatened to withdraw Yerevan's signature from
    the protocols in January. He said that the Turks "destroyed" the
    Western-backed rapprochement between the two historical foes with
    their Karabakh linkage.

    Foreign Ministers Eduard Nalbandian of Armenia (L) and Ahmet Davutoglu
    of Turkey sign landmark agreements to normalize Turkish-Armenian
    relations in Zurich.

    Shortly after the signing of the protocols in Zurich attended by
    top diplomats from the United States, Europe and Russia, Ankara
    made clear that the Turkish parliament will not ratify them without
    decisive progress in the Karabakh peace process. Azerbaijan welcomed
    this condition.

    Sarkisian responded by freezing the process of protocol ratification
    by Armenia's parliament in April 2010. In a televised address to the
    nation, he said he decided not to scrap the agreements altogether at
    the request of the United States and other foreign powers.

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised this stance as
    "very statesmanlike" when she visited Yerevan in July 2010. Clinton
    reportedly pressed the Turkish government to unconditionally comply
    with the protocols during a visit to Istanbul last month.

    However, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish leaders
    have continued to state that Turkey will not establish diplomatic
    relations and open its border with Armenia until a Karabakh settlement
    acceptable to Azerbaijan.

    Tensions between the two neighboring states rose further later in July
    after Ankara accused Sarkisian of voicing Armenian territorial claims
    to Turkey. Erdogan publicly demanded that the Armenian leader apologize
    for the "provocation." Officials in Yerevan rejected the accusations.

    Sarkisian insisted on Tuesday that despite the lack of tangible
    results, he does not regret embarking on a policy of rapprochement
    with Turkey shortly after taking office in April 2008. "I think that
    those present in this audience understand that that initiative has
    boosted Armenia's international standing and dispelled our partners'
    illusions about a new and contemporary Turkey," he said.

    Sarkisian has been accused by critics in Armenia and its worldwide
    Diaspora of making too many concessions to the Turks in the
    normalization process and gaining little in return. One of them,
    the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party, quit his coalition
    government in protest in 2009.

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