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Turkey presses Armenia for clear declaration of bona fide, political will
Davutoğlu, who arrived in London on Wednesday evening to participate in an international conference on Afghanistan in the British capital on Thursday, spoke with reporters yesterday. Davutoğlu had engaged in separate talks with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov as of Thursday evening. On the sidelines of the conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also had separate bilateral talks with Nalbandian and Mammadyarov.
During his talks with Nalbandian, Davutoğlu once more explained Ankara’s uneasiness with the reasoning of the Armenian constitutional court’s decision of Jan. 12, which found the protocols signed on Oct. 10 of last year in Zurich to be in conformity with the Armenian constitution. The minister did the same thing during his talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton upon his arrival in London on Wednesday evening.
A healthy continuation of the normalization process is important for Turkey, Davutoğlu said at the press conference. “We don’t believe that this process will proceed with interpretations that are not in line with the spirit and wording of the protocols signed with Armenia,” Davutoğlu said, echoing Ankara’s view that the Armenian court’s decision “contains preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and spirit of the protocols.”
“Since the reasoned ruling by the Constitution Court is a legal text, we are awaiting a clarification of the results of this operation of limitation and restriction,” Davutoğlu said.
The heart of the matter for Ankara is the court’s reference to Armenia’s 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.”
The fifth paragraph of the Armenian court’s ruling says that the protocols “cannot be interpreted or applied” in a way that would contradict the provisions of the preamble to Armenia’s constitution and the requirements of paragraph 11 of its declaration of independence.
Despite insistent questions from reporters on what exactly Ankara wanted from Yerevan at this point, Davutoğlu did not elaborate because he believed this would be interfering in the domestic affairs of the neighboring country.
But sources had already said that Ankara is expecting to receive a written guarantee from the Yerevan administration reaffirming that the detailed reasoning by the Armenian constitutional court will not have an impact on the process of normalization of bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey.
When posed a question implying that the blame would be put on Turkey if the process of normalization comes to a halt, Davutoğlu appeared confident in his strongly worded remarks.
While noting that he does not like expressions that begin with “if,” Davutoğlu reiterated Ankara’s willingness to continue the process. “When we believe that we are doing the right thing, we don’t base our actions on criticism coming from anyone,” Davutoğlu said, adding that all are aware that Turkey has the courage to make difficult decisions when it believes it is doing the right thing.
“If we conclude that this process is not working properly, then there will be no need to keep it running. We will, of course, heed criticism. We will respond and talk. However, if Turkey is treated unfairly despite this, then we won’t change our manner fearing that we will be treated unfairly,” Davutoğlu said.
Earlier this week, Washington made clear that it regards the Armenian constitutional court’s decision to approve two Turkish-Armenian protocols as a “positive step forward” in the ratification process of the protocols aimed at normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations.
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