Armenia skeptical before Erdoğan-Sarkisian meeting

Armenia skeptical before Erdoğan-Sarkisian meeting

Monday, April 12, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

All eyes in Armenia were focused on the meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 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 Hürriyet 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-Erdoğan 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.