ZURICH, 10 OCTOBER, NOYAN TAPAN-AP. Turkey and Armenia
signed an accord Saturday to establish diplomatic relations
after a century of enmity, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton helped the two sides clear a last-minute snag.
"It was pulled back from the brink," said a senior U.S.
official The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers signed the
agreement in the Swiss city of Zurich after a dispute over the
final statements they would make. In the end, the signing took
place about three hours later and there were no spoken
statements. Accordind to AP, officials say Clinton and
mediators from Switzerland intervened to help broker a solution.
The accord is expected to win ratification from both
nations' parliaments and could lead to a reopening of their
border, which has been closed for 16 years. But nationalists on
both sides are still seeking to derail implementation of the
deal. American officials said Clinton; the top U.S. diplomat
for Europe, Philip Gordon; and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline
Calmy-Rey were engaged in furious high-stakes shuttle diplomacy
with the Turkish and Armenian delegations to resolve the
differences. Diplomats said the Armenians were concerned about
wording in the Turkish statement that was to be made after the
signing ceremony at University of Zurich and had expressed those
concerns "at the last minute" before the scheduled signing
ceremony.
Clinton had arrived at the ceremony venue after meeting
separately with the Turks and Armenians at a hotel, but abruptly
departed without leaving her car when the problem arose. She
returned to the hotel where she spoke by phone from the sedan in
the parking lot, three times with the Armenians and four times
with the Turks. At one point in the intervention, a Swiss police
car, lights and siren blazing, brought a Turkish diplomat to the
hotel from the university with a new draft of his country's
statement. After nearly two hours, Clinton and Armenian Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian met in person at the hotel and drove
back to the university where negotiations continued. It was not
clear if there would be a resolution. In the end, the Turks and
Armenians signed an accord establishing diplomatic ties in hope
of reopening their border and ending a century of acrimony over
their bloody past.
"We are trying to boost our relations with Armenia in a way
that will cause no hard feelings for Azerbaijan," Erdogan told
reporters. Armenian President Serge Sarkisian said his country
was taking "responsible decisions" in normalizing relations with
Turkey, despite what he called the unhealable wounds of
genocide.
The agreement calls for a panel to discuss "the
historical dimension" of the killing of an estimated 1.5 million
Armenians during World War I. The discussion is to 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, which denies genocide, contending the toll is inflated
and that those killed were victims of civil war. "There is no
alternative to the establishment of the relations with Turkey
without any precondition," said Sarkisian. "It is the dictate of
the time."
Clinton, Kouchner and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov were among the leaders who were on hand to watch the
signing as it took place. Better ties between Turkey, a
regional heavyweight, and poor, landlocked Armenia are a
priority for President Barack 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 European Union 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. Switzerland, which mediated six weeks of talks between
Turkey and Armenia to reach the accord, hosted the signing.
Necati Cetinkaya, a deputy chairman of Turkey's governing
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!" On the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue, 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.