30.04.2009
Turkey’s powerful military has spoken out against normalizing relations with Armenia before a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, raising more questions about a U.S.-brokered agreement announced by Ankara and Yerevan last week.
General Ilker Basbug, chief of the Turkish General Staff, was reported to endorse late Wednesday Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements linking the reopening of the Turkish-Armenian border with the liberation of Armenian-occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
“The prime minister has clearly said the border opening will take place at the time when Armenian troops are withdrawn,” Basbug told a news conference, according to Turkish media. “We completely agree with this.”
Erdogan repeatedly made that linkage earlier this month, pouring cold water on hopes that the fence-mending negotiations between Turkey and Armenia will yield tangible results soon. Still, the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries announced in a joint statement on April 22 that the two governments have agreed on a “roadmap” on normalizing bilateral ties.
It remained unclear, however, when they plan to establish diplomatic relations and reopen the border. Neither government has officially disclosed the framework yet.
Reports in the Turkish press have said that the United States was closely involved in the drawing up of the Turkish-Armenian statement. According to “Hurriyet Daily News,” Erdogan agreed to sign it only after Washington threatened to recognize the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. U.S. President Barack Obama refrained from using the word in his April 24 statement that commemorated the 94th anniversary of the massacres.
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources in Yerevan said on Thursday that Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian will fly to Washington this weekend for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Turkish-Armenian relations will be high on their agenda.
Clinton and Nalbandian already discussed the issue over the phone on Monday. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Clinton described the “roadmap” agreement as “historic.”
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