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ARMENIA WITHDRAWS PEACE ACCORDS WITH TURKEY FROM PARLIAMENT
Reuters
Feb 16 2015
By Hasmik Lazarian
(Reuters) - Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan said on Monday he
withdrew from parliament landmark peace accords with Turkey, setting
further back U.S.-backed efforts to bury a century of hostility
between the neighbors.
The two countries signed accords in October 2009 to establish
diplomatic relations and open their land border, trying to overcome the
legacy of the World War One mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
The process had been deadlocked by nationalists on both sides,
and Ankara and Yerevan have accused the other of trying to rewrite
the texts and setting new conditions. Many Armenians want Turkey to
recognize the 1915 mass killings as genocide and pay reparations,
proposals Ankara balks at.
Neither parliament has approved the deal, which would bring huge
economic gains for poor, landlocked Armenia, burnish Turkey's
credentials as an EU candidate and boost its clout in the strategic
South Caucasus.
"We were ready for a fully-fledged settlement in our relations
with Turkey by ratifying these protocols, but we were also ready
for failure," Sarksyan said in a letter that had been sent to the
parliament, his press service said.
He blamed Turkey for "absence of the political will" in finding
solution.
"We have nothing to hide and it should be clear for the international
community whose fault it was that the last closed European border
was not open," he said.
Armenia, a country of 3.2 million, is approaching the 100th-anniversary
of the killings, when tens of thousands lay flowers at a hilltop
monument in the capital on April 24th.
U.S. President Barack Obama will issue a statement to mark the
anniversary of the massacres, a defining element of Armenian national
identity and thorn in the side of Turkey.
Muslim Turkey accepts many Christian Armenians died in partisan
fighting beginning in 1915 but denies that up to 1.5 million were
killed and that it amounted to genocide -- a term used by some Western
historians and foreign parliaments.
(Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/16/us-armenia-turkey-protocols-idUSKBN0LK1FL20150216
Reuters
Feb 16 2015
By Hasmik Lazarian
(Reuters) - Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan said on Monday he
withdrew from parliament landmark peace accords with Turkey, setting
further back U.S.-backed efforts to bury a century of hostility
between the neighbors.
The two countries signed accords in October 2009 to establish
diplomatic relations and open their land border, trying to overcome the
legacy of the World War One mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
The process had been deadlocked by nationalists on both sides,
and Ankara and Yerevan have accused the other of trying to rewrite
the texts and setting new conditions. Many Armenians want Turkey to
recognize the 1915 mass killings as genocide and pay reparations,
proposals Ankara balks at.
Neither parliament has approved the deal, which would bring huge
economic gains for poor, landlocked Armenia, burnish Turkey's
credentials as an EU candidate and boost its clout in the strategic
South Caucasus.
"We were ready for a fully-fledged settlement in our relations
with Turkey by ratifying these protocols, but we were also ready
for failure," Sarksyan said in a letter that had been sent to the
parliament, his press service said.
He blamed Turkey for "absence of the political will" in finding
solution.
"We have nothing to hide and it should be clear for the international
community whose fault it was that the last closed European border
was not open," he said.
Armenia, a country of 3.2 million, is approaching the 100th-anniversary
of the killings, when tens of thousands lay flowers at a hilltop
monument in the capital on April 24th.
U.S. President Barack Obama will issue a statement to mark the
anniversary of the massacres, a defining element of Armenian national
identity and thorn in the side of Turkey.
Muslim Turkey accepts many Christian Armenians died in partisan
fighting beginning in 1915 but denies that up to 1.5 million were
killed and that it amounted to genocide -- a term used by some Western
historians and foreign parliaments.
(Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/16/us-armenia-turkey-protocols-idUSKBN0LK1FL20150216