Armenia suspended ratification of peace accords with Turkey on Thursday, setting back to square one US-backed efforts to bury a century of hostility between the neighbors.
Christian Armenia and Muslim Turkey signed accords in October last year to establish diplomatic relations and open their land border, trying to overcome the legacy of the World War I mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
However, the process was already deadlocked before Thursday’s decision, with each side accusing the other of trying to rewrite the texts and setting new conditions.
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.
Analysts said the Armenian decision, two days before the 95th anniversary of the killings, was not the end of the road, but an attempt to increase pressure on Turkey.
Armenia was angered by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan saying that ratification would depend on Armenia reaching terms with Azerbaijan, Turkey’s close ally and energy trading partner, over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“We have decided ... not to exit the process for the time being, but rather, to suspend the procedure of ratifying the protocols. We believe this to be in the best interests of our nation,” Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan said.
Armenia would keep its signature to the accords “because we desire peace,” he said in an address to the nation.
“We shall consider moving forward when we are convinced that there is a proper environment in Turkey and there is a leadership in Ankara ready to re-engage in the normalization process,” he said.
Erdogan said Turkey remained committed to the process.
“We have frequently expressed our commitment to the protocols in word and in spirit and our goal to fulfill them,” he said.
However, he gave no sign that he would withdraw the condition that Armenia and Azerbaijan reach a deal on Nagorno-Karabakh, something that has evaded mediators for more than 15 years.
“We have expressed clearly, to all parties concerned, our intention to achieve comprehensive peace in the region,” he said.
The US State Department said it was not surprised by Armenia’s announcement and believed the peace process could still advance.
“We’re encouraged that neither side has walked away from the process, but I think we all recognize that we just need some time to perhaps create some new momentum that allows the process to move forward,” US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. “Both sides have taken pains to make sure the process doesn’t collapse. That gives us some reason for optimism.”
Analysts noted the wording of the Armenian decision was a suspension, not a withdrawal.
“This was a lot weaker than feared,” Yerevan-based US analyst Richard Giragosian said. “This is a political tactic rather than a shift in strategic policy.”
Both governments face opposition at home, and in Armenia’s case from its huge diaspora, many of whom trace their roots to the World War I killings and deportations.
Armenian opponents say the accords betray Armenian efforts to have the massacres internationally recognized as genocide.
Turkish critics say the deal is a betrayal of fellow Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, an oil and gas exporter and one of the West’s key hopes for gas for the planned Nabucco pipeline.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, when ethnic Armenians backed by Armenia threw off Azeri rule with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Azerbaijan says the frontier must stay shut until ethnic Armenian forces pull back, and has lashed out at Washington for backing the thaw.
Armenia, a country of 3.2 million, is approaching the April 24th anniversary of the killings, when tens of thousands lay flowers at a hilltop monument in the capital.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Sri Lanka’s fragile economic recovery could be hampered by threatened trade union strikes over reduced benefits for government employees in this year’s budget, the IMF said yesterday. Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s maiden budget raised public sector salaries, but also made deep cuts to longstanding perks in a continuing effort to repair the island nation’s tattered finances. Sri Lanka’s main doctors’ union is considering a strike from today to protest against cuts to their allowances, while teachers are also considering stoppages. IMF senior mission chief for Sri Lanka Peter Breuer said the budget was the “last big push” for the country’s austerity
RSS