WASHINGTON—Less than 24 hours after the signing of the controversial Turkey-Armenia protocols, Turkey’s top leaders outlined their preconditions to the opening of the Turkey-Armenia border, connecting the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict to Ankara’s willingness to lift its illegal blockade of Armenia, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
“Once again, Turkey’s leaders have made it abundantly clear, most recently in their public pledge to keep their blockade in place until Azerbaijan agrees to its lifting, that the protocols represent simply another vehicle for them to impose pressure on Yerevan and secure concessions from the Armenian people,” said ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian. “The Obama Administration, rather than continuing to lean on Armenia to accept agreements that threaten her security and cast doubt on the Armenian Genocide, should call out Turkey for its cynical and transparent manipulation of the protocols process to advance its anti-Armenian policies.”
According to the Wall Street Journal and hundreds of similar reports, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his ruling Justice and Development Party on Sunday that “as long as Armenia has not withdrawn from Azerbaijani territory that it is occupying, Turkey cannot have a positive attitude on this subject [border opening].”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported that Erdogan had assured Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that “further progress in the Karabagh peace process will be a determining factor in the consideration by the Turkish Parliament of the Turkish-Armenian agreements.” RFE/RL also reported that a Turkish Embassy press statement was even more explicit: “As our country’s prime minister repeatedly stated in his earlier statements, the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border will be impossible as long as the occupied Azerbaijani territories are not liberated. … The opening of the border is quite a lengthy process… This process must run parallel to the process of resolving the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict and liberating the occupied Azerbaijani territories.”
The ANCA joined with Armenians around the world in opposing the Turkey-Armenia protocols, citing, among other reservations, Turkey’s efforts to use the document to tilt the Karabagh negotiations in favor of Azerbaijan, as well as to establish a “historical commission” that would question the historical truth of the Armenian Genocide.
Upon the signing of the document, ANCA chairman Ken Hachikian commented, “President Obama, rather than honoring his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, went in exactly the opposite direction, applying the full force of our nation’s diplomacy to twist the arm of a landlocked and blockaded Armenia—a nation still struggling with the brutal legacy of its near-destruction—into accepting a dangerous set of protocols that call into question this very crime against humanity.”
Armenian President Serge Sarkisian is set to travel to Turkey on Oct. 14 to attend a soccer match between the two countries.
The agenda will reportedly include discussion of the protocols ratification process.
A normal person could not expect other developments.
We should have seen this coming, it’s going to be like Israel and Palestine, back and forth always with tricks to make one party look to be the problem.
And now we should have an even clearer picture of Armenia’s leadership and what he’s good for…
Predictable, but managing thisPR game is what we need to excel at. Point and counterpoint, baiting and other tactics to win the public edge. We need to stand firm in Karabagh and let the Turks dig in deeper with the “non pre-conditions”. Soon the sizeable cracks within the Turkish side will become more evident. In addition, the only way for Turkey to keep Azerbaijan quiet is to force a play on Karabagh; which is supposed to be outside of the protocols process. As Turkey moves to ratify the protocols, Azerbaijan will not be able to resistinterupting the discussion with their agenda. These
dynamics should be something we can exploit. Focus on the content of the protocols. Let them be viewed as the side representing distractions, denying and delaying. If we play his right, the Turks will reject this(probablythrough delays and distractions; not the ratification) and we may have the opportunity to get it right.