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Armenia and Turkey exchange accusations
The comments by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian appeared to be a response to Turkish complaints over the Constitutional Court ruling in Armenia last week that Ankara said was an attempt to rewrite the text of the deal. The rhetoric in both countries has grown increasingly bitter since they inked accords in October designed to overcome a century of hostility stemming from the World War I killings of Anatolian Armenians.
“If Turkey is not ready to ratify the protocols, if it continues to speak in the language of preconditions and to block the process, then I don't exclude it,” Nalbandian said at a press conference in Yerevan on Friday when asked if the process was in danger of collapsing. But he added, “I hope Turkey will ratify the documents.”
According to a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement on Jan. 18, the Armenian Constitutional Court’s “grounds for decision” over the conformity of the protocols to their constitution “contain preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and spirit of the protocols” and “undermine the very reason for negotiating these protocols as well as their fundamental objective.”
In Ankara, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, speaking at a joint press conference with visiting Jordan’s Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, recalled that Turkey had sent the protocols to Parliament in order to be ratified a week after they were signed on Oct. 10, while Armenia sent them first to the Constitutional Court in order to decide whether the proposed protocols were constitutional.
The two protocols require parliamentary ratification in both countries before they enter into force. The Armenian court ruled the protocols were constitutional.
Turkey to establish 3rd high-level strategic council with Jordan The foreign ministers of Jordan and Turkey on Friday discussed necessary steps to be taken to establish a joint mechanism similar to the high-level strategic councils created between Turkey and Syria and Turkey and Iraq last year. A strong zone of economic cooperation will emerge in the Middle East following the establishment of a high-level strategic council between Jordan and Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Friday at a joint press conference in Ankara following his talks with Jordan’s visiting Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, highlighting that such a zone would eventually help build permanent foundations for regional peace. Davutoğlu recalled that Syria, Jordan and Libya removed visa requirements for Turkish nationals in agreements concluded last year and that Turkey and Lebanon had signed an agreement to abolish visa requirements for their nationals in early January. In December Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Jordan’s King Abdullah II signed a long-awaited free trade agreement. Davutoğlu and Judeh had reviewed implementation of the agreement, Davutoğlu said, adding that Turkey was preparing to soon sign a free trade agreement with Lebanon. Davutoğlu said he and Judeh had exchanged views on an entity to be established between Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria following the signing of the free trade agreement between Turkey and Lebanon that is to serve as a free trade zone. Ankara Today’s Zaman |
“Of course, it may be argued to which extent the legal opinions -- put forth by the Constitutional Court along the approval process -- are binding within the Armenian constitution. However, what matters for us is the protection of the wording and spirit of the protocols,” Davutoğlu said.
“Today, we continue to be committed to the wording and spirit of the protocols,” he said, highlighting the presence of a strong political will in Turkey for full normalization of ties with Armenia.
Recalling that he conveyed his concerns to Nalbandian during a lengthy telephone conversation earlier this week, Davutoğlu said he reminded Nalbandian of the fact that they started this initiative to normalize relations with a “visionary view.”
The Armenian court’s legal opinions do not have an impact on principles agreed upon by Armenia and Turkey, his Armenian counterpart told him, Davutoğlu said, noting that he would discuss the issue with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, whose country mediated the talks between Armenia and Turkey, during telephone talks later on Friday.
“The picture which will emerge with the [implementation of the] protocols should not change; all elements targeted with these protocols, including the commissions, should be accepted as a whole,” he said.
Davutoğlu was referring to the fact that the court had ruled to approve the protocols, which call for the establishment of a joint commission of historians to better understand past events, but on the other hand refers to the Declaration of Independence of Armenia.
Paragraph 11 of the Declaration of Independence 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.” Ankara argues that with such a ruling, Armenia has taken the heart out of the protocols and created a new, restrictive situation.
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