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ARMENIA SUSPENDS US-BACKED NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS WITH TURKEY
Vladimir Socor
Georgian Daily
http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=co m_content&task=view&id=18404&Itemid=13 2
April 29 2010
Georgia
On April 22, Armenian President, Serzh Sargsyan, announced a unilateral
suspension of the process of normalizing Armenia-Turkey relations -a
process driven by the United States on its own terms of reference. In
follow-up statements on April 24, Sargsyan interprets the goal of
normalization as being compatible with genocide recognition efforts
against Turkey in the international arena.
Yerevan's move seems designed at least in part to re-energize such
efforts in the United States, for leverage on Turkey and Azerbaijan.
It follows the failure of Washington's recent attempts to convince
Turkey to de-couple from Azerbaijan and open the Turkish-Armenian
border, without requiring any withdrawal of Armenian troops from
Azerbaijan's inner districts.
Sargsyan issued his announcement just two days before Obama's April 24
Armenian Remembrance Day message. Sargsyan's timing seemed calculated
to increase pressure for the term "genocide" or a near-equivalent to
be included in the US president's message. In the event, Obama used an
Armenian paraphrase twice in his message (White House press release,
April 24), just as he had done last year. The White House will have to
struggle with the genocide issue through the mid-term elections until
(at least) next year's Armenian Remembrance Day.
Technically, Armenia's suspension takes the form of withdrawing the
Armenian-Turkish normalization protocols from ratification by its
parliament. Signed by presidents Sargsyan and Abdullah Gul, after
US prodding, in October 2009 in Zurich, the two protocols envisaged
establishing diplomatic relations and opening the mutual border for
trade and transit (seen as benefiting mainly Armenia). Normalization
was to be achieved "within a reasonable time-frame," (before the US
political deadline on April 24). Moreover, normalization was to be
pursued "without preconditions," meaning that Turkey would normalize
relations despite Armenia's occupation of inner-Azeri territories,
while Armenia would withdraw its support from genocide recognition
efforts in the US political arena.
In his April 22 statement to the nation, Sargsyan asserted that
Turkey has dragged out the process beyond a reasonable timeframe, so
as to pass the April 24 deadline (a charge designed to resonate with
the US administration). Sargsyan criticizes Ankara for introducing
preconditions, meaning (though he does not spell it out) that it has
reinstated the linkage between the re-opening of the Turkish-Armenian
border and withdrawal of Armenian troops from inner-Azeri territories.
Armenia therefore suspended the protocols' parliamentary ratification,
Sargsyan said, until Turkey would re-engages in "normalization"
without preconditions, or separates the process of Turkish-Armenian
normalization from that of Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict resolution.
Armenia retains its [Sargsyan's] signature under the Zurich protocols
and does not exit the process "for the time being." However, "our
struggle for international recognition of the genocide continues"
(Armenian Radio, Arminfo, April 22, 23).
In two follow-up statements on April 24 to the Armenian people and
to Russian media, respectively, Sargsyan vowed that Armenia would
continue to "struggle for genocide recognition as an irreversible
process" and "an obligation, irrespective of the political situation."
He defines the historical commission envisaged by the Zurich protocols
as a forum for studying the Armenian genocide, not for determining
whether it took place or not. Moreover, "We reject the argument
that the dialogue between Armenia and Turkey can justify the refusal
to recognize the Armenian genocide" (Arminfo, PanArmenian.Net, RIA
Novosti, Interfax, April 24).
Thus, Yerevan contradicts the Obama administration's argument that
Armenian-Turkish normalization would justify halting the genocide
recognition campaign. To deflect that campaign, the administration
had proposed opening the Turkish-Armenian border, in lieu of genocide
recognition. Yerevan went along with the Obama administration's
argument for one year, irritating many in the activist Armenian
diaspora groups; but Yerevan is now apparently realigning with that
part of the diaspora by again insisting on genocide recognition.
Addressing a Congressional leadership group headed by House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi in Washington, Armenian Ambassador, Tatul Margarian,
similarly declared, "The [Armenia-Turkey] rapprochement cannot take
place to the detriment of genocide recognition" (PanArmenian.Net,
April 24).
All this seems to presage continuing attempts at exerting political
leverage on Ankara and Baku via Washington's political processes, in
the run-up to the US mid-term elections. The administration had sought
Yerevan's help for moving the genocide debate from the US political
arena into the quiet confines of a historical commission. Apparently,
Yerevan has become less cooperative in this regard.
Yerevan has suspended its part in the "normalization," realizing that
the process has failed to divide Turkey from Azerbaijan, or to pressure
Ankara into sacrificing Baku's interests in the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict. Moscow must have realized this also.
Sargsyan flew to Moscow for consultations with President Dmitry
Medvedev on April 20, two days before announcing the suspension of
normalizing relations with Turkey (Arminfo, Interfax, April 20-22).
Source: http://www.jamestown.org/programs/edm
Vladimir Socor
Georgian Daily
http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=co m_content&task=view&id=18404&Itemid=13 2
April 29 2010
Georgia
On April 22, Armenian President, Serzh Sargsyan, announced a unilateral
suspension of the process of normalizing Armenia-Turkey relations -a
process driven by the United States on its own terms of reference. In
follow-up statements on April 24, Sargsyan interprets the goal of
normalization as being compatible with genocide recognition efforts
against Turkey in the international arena.
Yerevan's move seems designed at least in part to re-energize such
efforts in the United States, for leverage on Turkey and Azerbaijan.
It follows the failure of Washington's recent attempts to convince
Turkey to de-couple from Azerbaijan and open the Turkish-Armenian
border, without requiring any withdrawal of Armenian troops from
Azerbaijan's inner districts.
Sargsyan issued his announcement just two days before Obama's April 24
Armenian Remembrance Day message. Sargsyan's timing seemed calculated
to increase pressure for the term "genocide" or a near-equivalent to
be included in the US president's message. In the event, Obama used an
Armenian paraphrase twice in his message (White House press release,
April 24), just as he had done last year. The White House will have to
struggle with the genocide issue through the mid-term elections until
(at least) next year's Armenian Remembrance Day.
Technically, Armenia's suspension takes the form of withdrawing the
Armenian-Turkish normalization protocols from ratification by its
parliament. Signed by presidents Sargsyan and Abdullah Gul, after
US prodding, in October 2009 in Zurich, the two protocols envisaged
establishing diplomatic relations and opening the mutual border for
trade and transit (seen as benefiting mainly Armenia). Normalization
was to be achieved "within a reasonable time-frame," (before the US
political deadline on April 24). Moreover, normalization was to be
pursued "without preconditions," meaning that Turkey would normalize
relations despite Armenia's occupation of inner-Azeri territories,
while Armenia would withdraw its support from genocide recognition
efforts in the US political arena.
In his April 22 statement to the nation, Sargsyan asserted that
Turkey has dragged out the process beyond a reasonable timeframe, so
as to pass the April 24 deadline (a charge designed to resonate with
the US administration). Sargsyan criticizes Ankara for introducing
preconditions, meaning (though he does not spell it out) that it has
reinstated the linkage between the re-opening of the Turkish-Armenian
border and withdrawal of Armenian troops from inner-Azeri territories.
Armenia therefore suspended the protocols' parliamentary ratification,
Sargsyan said, until Turkey would re-engages in "normalization"
without preconditions, or separates the process of Turkish-Armenian
normalization from that of Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict resolution.
Armenia retains its [Sargsyan's] signature under the Zurich protocols
and does not exit the process "for the time being." However, "our
struggle for international recognition of the genocide continues"
(Armenian Radio, Arminfo, April 22, 23).
In two follow-up statements on April 24 to the Armenian people and
to Russian media, respectively, Sargsyan vowed that Armenia would
continue to "struggle for genocide recognition as an irreversible
process" and "an obligation, irrespective of the political situation."
He defines the historical commission envisaged by the Zurich protocols
as a forum for studying the Armenian genocide, not for determining
whether it took place or not. Moreover, "We reject the argument
that the dialogue between Armenia and Turkey can justify the refusal
to recognize the Armenian genocide" (Arminfo, PanArmenian.Net, RIA
Novosti, Interfax, April 24).
Thus, Yerevan contradicts the Obama administration's argument that
Armenian-Turkish normalization would justify halting the genocide
recognition campaign. To deflect that campaign, the administration
had proposed opening the Turkish-Armenian border, in lieu of genocide
recognition. Yerevan went along with the Obama administration's
argument for one year, irritating many in the activist Armenian
diaspora groups; but Yerevan is now apparently realigning with that
part of the diaspora by again insisting on genocide recognition.
Addressing a Congressional leadership group headed by House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi in Washington, Armenian Ambassador, Tatul Margarian,
similarly declared, "The [Armenia-Turkey] rapprochement cannot take
place to the detriment of genocide recognition" (PanArmenian.Net,
April 24).
All this seems to presage continuing attempts at exerting political
leverage on Ankara and Baku via Washington's political processes, in
the run-up to the US mid-term elections. The administration had sought
Yerevan's help for moving the genocide debate from the US political
arena into the quiet confines of a historical commission. Apparently,
Yerevan has become less cooperative in this regard.
Yerevan has suspended its part in the "normalization," realizing that
the process has failed to divide Turkey from Azerbaijan, or to pressure
Ankara into sacrificing Baku's interests in the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict. Moscow must have realized this also.
Sargsyan flew to Moscow for consultations with President Dmitry
Medvedev on April 20, two days before announcing the suspension of
normalizing relations with Turkey (Arminfo, Interfax, April 20-22).
Source: http://www.jamestown.org/programs/edm