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 ANKARA,
YEREVAN (Combined Sources)—In response to last week’s ruling by
Armenia’s Constitutional Court, the Turkish Foreign Ministry
Tuesday issued an announcement condemning Armenia for setting
“unacceptable” preconditions on the Armenia-Turkey protocols.
In a statement issued late Monday, Turkey’s
foreign ministry said “It has been observed that this
[Constitutional Court] decision contains preconditions and
restrictive provisions which impair the letter and spirit of the
Protocols.”
“The said decision undermines the very reason
for negotiating these Protocols as well as their fundamental
objective. This approach cannot be accepted on our part,”
continued the Turkish statement.
“Turkey, in line with its accustomed
allegiance to its international commitments, maintains its
adherence to the primary provisions of these Protocols,” added
the statement.
“We expect the same allegiance from the
Armenian Government,” the Turkish Ministry said in a statement,”
concluded the brief statement.
On January 12, Armenia’s Constitutional Court
upheld the constitutionality of the protocols, adding however,
that the documents cannot have any connection with the ongoing
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process or impede Armenia
of its pursuit of international recognition of the Armenia
Genocide. To reinforce the latter point, the Court referenced
Article 11 of 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.”
Official Yerevan was quick to react with
Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian saying that he will
personally phone his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu to
“express my bewilderment and clarify where exactly the Turkish
side sees preconditions and just how the decision by Armenia’s
Constitutional Court contradicts the fundamental objectives of
the protocols.”
Nalbandian also suggested that the Turkish
government was looking for excuses to delay the process and add
further preconditions on the protocols.
Despite countless arguments by the Armenian
President and foreign minister that Armenia has entered this
process without preconditions, Turkey has repeatedly linked the
normalization of relations between the two countries with the
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in favor of
Azerbaijan.
As recently as late last week, Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the protocols would not
be ratified until a resolution to the Karabakh conflict is
reached. These remarks came after his meeting with Russian Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin who bluntly said that the processes were
separate and could not be interconnected. The same position was
expressed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week
during his official visit to Yerevan.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which
has spearheaded vocal opposition to the protocols both in
Armenia and the Diaspora, rejected Turkey’s statement. The
party’s political director Giro Manoyan told reporters Tuesday
that with its statement Turkey proved, once again, that, aside
from its own interpretations, it rejects any other explanation
of the protocols.
Manoyan warned that after this announcement
by Turkey, Armenian authorities should not attempt to weaken the
Armenian high court’s position.
“It is imperative for the Armenian
authorities to not seek to weaken the Armenian Constitutional
Court’s decision,” said Manoyan explaining, “The Armenian
government must continue the process in the spirit of the court
ruling.”
In a statement issued by the ARF following
the Court ruling, the party expressed its continued rejection of
the protocols, but added that the Constitutional Court
provisions referenced above provide an opportunity for revisions
in the next phase of the ratification process.
“We have launched a process of normalization
in relations with Armenia and in good faith taken steps that
include the signing of the protocols,” Foreign Ministry
spokesman Burak Ozugergin told the Hurriyet Daily News &
Economic Review. “We have often expressed our views about what
the necessary conditions are for the maintenance of peace and
stability in the Caucasus.”
The Turkish government submitted the
protocols to Parliament, but they have not been submitted for
ratification because they depend on the progress in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, added Hurriyet in its news report on
the matter.
Burcu Gultekin Punsmann, a Caucasus expert at
the Turkish think tank TEPAV, said the diplomatic agreements
were a product of consensus between the states concerned and
argued that the Armenian constitutional court’s reasoning was
putting limits on points for which the sides had already reached
an agreement, reported the Hurriyet.
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