Davutoglu demands legal assurances from Armenia

By Asbarez | Thursday, 28 January 2010

ANKARA - Despite assurances from Armenia that the Constitutional Court ruling will not affect the Turkey-Armenia protocols process, Turkey is demanding written legal guarantee from Yerevan, while, at the same time, sending a warning to the US on the passage of the pending Armenian Genocide resolution in Congress, reported the Turkish Today's Zaman newspaper on Tuesday.

The newspaper added that the Turkish Foreign Ministry already has begun drafting such a document that delineates the Turkish position on what it calls the "incompatibilities" of Armenia's Constitutional Court ruling.

Ankara is hoping to get the US and Switzerland to join this process and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is planning to discuss the matter with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during an upcoming scheduled meeting in London later this month. Ankara also plans to apply to the OSCE Minsk Group and European Union.

The newspaper reported that Davutoglu has told his Armenian counterpart Eduard Nalbandian that Turkey would not ratify the protocols without legal guarantees from Yerevan.

Armenia's high court, on January 12, ruled that the Armenia-Protocols were in line with Armenia's Constitution, but highlighted that the protocols had no link to the Karabakh conflict, and could not hinder Armenia's efforts to garner international recognition for the Armenian Genocide as outlined in Armenia's Declaration of Independence.

Turkey reacted last week, with its foreign ministry saying that the Constitutional Court ruling amounted to preconditions being set by Armenia. Since the beginning of the protocols process, Turkey has publicly and on numerous occasions said that the normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations would not move forward without a Karabakh conflict resolution, which favors Azerbaijan.

In an interview with the Turkish NTV channel, Davutoglu also warned that if the Armenian Genocide resolution were to be discussed or passed by the Congress, the Armenia-Turkey rapprochement would break down.

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