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Clinton: Ball in Turkey's court for normalization with Armenia
Yet Ankara appeared to rule out speaking about the issue in sports terms, instead recalling that the process was largely stalled due to the domestic policy concerns of the Armenian administration. Turkish officials also reiterated that a partial normalization in the Caucasus cannot be sustainable as long as parties don't work for complete normalization. Clinton's remarks came on Sunday in Armenia, where she visited a memorial in Tsitsernakaberd which was built in the memory of Anatolian Armenians killed during World War I.
Clinton visited both Armenia and Azerbaijan on Sunday, delivering identical messages in both countries: Washington will do its part to help end the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between the two countries, violence serves no one and a resolution would bring prosperity and stability to the Caucasus.
“We urge Turkey to take the steps that it promised to take and that both sides continue to try to find the opportunity to open the door to reconciliation and normalization,” Clinton told reporters in Yerevan after talks with Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan. Calling Armenia’s readiness to pursue normal ties with Turkey “very statesmanlike and very impressive,” she added, “Now, as they say in sports, the ball is in the other court.”
Clinton was one of the world leaders present at a signing ceremony when the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey signed two normalization protocols in Zurich in October. However, the process hit a rocky patch in January after an Armenian court upheld the legality of the protocols but underlined that they could not contradict Yerevan’s official position that the alleged Armenian genocide must be internationally recognized. Turkey accused Yerevan of trying to set conditions on the deals. The process of normalization has also been crippled by Turkey’s insistence on parallel progress on the Nagorno-Karabakh territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Partial solutions to regional problems will bring neither peace, stability nor a sustainable resolution in the long-term,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Özügergin told Today’s Zaman, when asked about Clinton’s remarks.
According to İlter Turan, a professor of international relations from İstanbul Bilgi University, the fact that Clinton, while delivering the aforementioned remarks, particularly underscored that she was in Zurich when the protocols were signed is actually the essence of her message.
“Turkey didn’t clearly elaborate on its stance asking for parallel progress on the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute at the time. I guess that’s why Clinton assumes that Turkey hasn’t fulfilled its part and advocates that it should turn back to the paradigm set in Zurich,” Turan told Today’s Zaman.
“With all our best intentions, we have sent the protocols to Parliament,” Turkish diplomatic sources told Today’s Zaman on Monday, referring to the fact that the protocols were sent to Parliament for ratification in October last year. “But developments on the part of Armenia has stalled this process,” the same diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, referring to the Armenian constitutional court’s decision, which Ankara says “contains preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and spirit of the protocols.”
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