Alexander G. Higgins
Turkey, Armenia to sign historic accord
ZURICH — The foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, France and the European Union gathered Saturday in Switzerland to watch Turkey and Armenia sign an accord establishing diplomatic ties in hopes of reopening their border and ending a century of acrimony over their bloody past.
Nationalists on both sides are seeking to derail implementation of the agreement.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner were among the leaders who arrived in Zurich on Saturday for the signing later in the day.
“We have a very strong interest in promoting peace and stability in that part of the world,” said a senior State Department official traveling with Clinton.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement doesn’t directly involve the U.S., noted that President Barack Obama spoke to Armenian President Serge Sarkisian to reaffirm his support for the normalization process.
Better ties between Turkey, a regional heavyweight, and poor, landlocked Armenia are a priority for Obama. They could help reduce tensions in the troubled Caucasus region and facilitate its growing role as a corridor for energy supplies bound for the West.
Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, thanked Turkey, which is a candidate for membership.
“This is an important cooperation, no doubt, of Turkey to solve one issue that pertains to a region which is in our neighborhood,” Solana told AP Television News after arriving in Zurich.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was taking steps with “goodwill” to restore ties with Armenia but that it was keen on seeing Armenian troops withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh.
“We are trying to boost our relations with Armenia in a way that will cause no hard feelings for Azerbaijan,” Erdogan told reporters in Turkey.
Erdogan said Turkey’s relations with Armenia after the agreement is signed Saturday will run parallel to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Switzerland, which mediated six weeks of talks between Turkey and Armenia to reach the accord, is hosting the signing.
The contentious issue of whether the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the final days of the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide is only hinted at in the agreement, which calls for diplomatic ties for the first time and the opening of the border within two months.
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The foreign ministers of both countries are expected to sign the deal and both parliaments are expected to ratify it. Clinton was meeting separately with the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers before the signing.
Necati Cetinkaya, a deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, defended the deal, saying “sincere steps that are being taken will benefit Turkey.” He said Turkey is aiming to form friendly ties with all its neighbors and could benefit from trade with Armenia.
But Yilmaz Ates of the main opposition Republican People’s Party said Turkey should avoid any concessions.
“If Armenia wants to repair relations … then it should end occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, that’s it,” Ates said Saturday.
About 10,000 protesters rallied Friday in Armenia’s capital to oppose the signing, and a tour of Armenian communities by Sarkisian sparked protests in Lebanon and France, with demonstrators in Paris shouting “Traitor!”
The agreement calls for a panel to discuss “the historical dimension” — a reference to the genocide issue — that will include “an impartial scientific examination of the historical records and archives to define existing problems and formulate recommendations.”
That clause is viewed as a concession to Turkey because Armenia has said that genocide was confirmed by international historians, and further discussion could lead to deadlock. Turkey denies genocide, contending the toll is inflated and those killed were victims of civil war.
Another source of dispute is Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan that is occupied by Armenian troops. Turks have close cultural and linguistic ties with Azerbaijan, which is pressing Turkey for help in recovering its land. Turkey shut its border with Armenia to protest the Armenian invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1993.
Turkey wants Armenia to withdraw some troops from the enclave area to show goodwill and speed the opening of their joint border, but Armenia has yet to agree, said Omer Taspinar, Turkey project director at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
“We may end up in a kind of awkward situation where there are diplomatic relations, but the border is still closed,” Taspinar said.
Associated Press Writers Matthew Lee and Bradley S. Klapper in Zurich, Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, and Christopher Torchia in Istanbul contributed to this report.
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