ARMENIA SKEPTICAL BEFORE ERDOGAN-SARKISIAN MEETING
Hurriyet
April 12 2010
Turkey
All eyes in Armenia were focused on the meeting between Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian
on Monday, as speculation mounted on whether the land border between
the two neighbors could be opened.
"Turkey is engaging in political maneuvering before April 24 [the day
when some countries commemorate 1915 events]," said David Shahnazarian,
representative of the Armenian National Congress.
Speaking to the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review by phone.
Shahnazarian, known as the right-hand man of former Armenian President
Levon Ter-Petrossian said: "Turkey just wants to show to the world
that relations with Armenia are on track. U.S. President Barack Obama
is also trying to fend off pressure through these maneuvers. Turkey
will not open the border unless the Karabakh issue is solved."
Shahnazarian said last year a similar process had unfolded as foreign
ministers of both sides on April 23 announced they were working on
a road map to normalize relations.
Hagop Avedikian, the editor in chief of Armenian newspaper Azk,
agreed. "This year we have a similar situation [to April 23 last
year]. The events of 1915 constitute a genocide, and such a great
pain should not be used as political material," Avedikian said.
An important sign
Recalling that Azerbaijian was not invited to the Washington summit,
Avedikian said this is an indication that the U.S. sees Turkey-Armenia
relations and the Karabakh issue as separate. "The U.S., Russia and the
European Union will put pressure on Turkey to approve the protocols,
but Ankara cannot leave Baku alone," he told the Daily News.
Aramazd Ghalamkarian, the deputy director for the daily Haygagan
Zhamanag (Armenian Times) offered a different perspective. "For me
the process is a regional, supra-national one," he told the Daily News.
"This means there is the will to resolve certain regional issues in
the near future, and these issues are not limited to Armenia-Turkey
and Armenia-Azerbaijan relations only."
Commenting on the Sarkisian-Erdogan meeting, Ghalamkarian said the
summit will "boost" the process. "I suppose that Russia should be
announced as the leader of this process and not the United States,
but this is just my idea," he said.