ARMENIA SUSPENDS RATIFICATION OF PEACE DEAL WITH TURKEY
Global Times
25243.html
April 23 2010
China
Source: Xinhua [08:47 April 23 2010] Comments Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan said Thursday his country has suspended ratification
of landmark accords on normalizing relations with Turkey, according
to local media reports.
During a televised address, Sargsyan said the parliamentary suspension
was because of Turkey’s refusal to "ratify the protocols without
preconditions," chiefly over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The two countries signed a historic deal in 2009 to re-establish
diplomatic ties and reopen their land border despite differences over
the World War I massive deaths of Armenians.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 to protest Armenia’s
war with neighboring Azerbaijan over the enclave, which is within
Azerbaijan but under the control of ethnic Armenian forces.
The protocols Turkey and Armenia signed to normalize relations need
to be approved by both countries’ parliaments before taking effect,
but progress on ratification has been slow.
Apart from the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Turkey and Armenia have also
been bogged down in a row over the World War I-era massive deaths of
Armenians. Armenia says the deaths were genocide while Turkey denies
that charge and insists the Armenians were victims of widespread
chaos and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire
collapsed before modern Turkey was born in 1923.