Category: Southern Caucasus

Armenia Showcases Iran Ties, as Talks With Azerbaijan and Turkey Falter

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 29

February 11, 2010

By: Emil Danielyan

Armenia is showcasing its close relationship with Iran at a delicate time in its negotiations with two other, less friendly neighbors: Azerbaijan and Turkey. With the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations and the resolution of the Karabakh conflict looking increasingly problematic, authorities in Yerevan seem to be hedging their bets by pursuing more multi-million dollar commercial projects with Tehran.

Armenian leaders have also made a point of underlining Iran’s broader geopolitical significance for their landlocked country and what they have long described as Tehran’s “balanced” position on the Karabakh dispute. Their Iranian counterparts have readily reciprocated that praise in the latest flurry of diplomatic activity between the two governments. “The foundation of the two countries’ relations is being fundamentally strengthened and cooperation in such major fields as energy, transportation, and communications would project a new image of our bilateral ties,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said at the end of a two-day visit to Yerevan on January 27 (IRNA, January 28).

“You know well what importance we attach to relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that we perceive you as a reliable partner and a country with a pivotal significance in the region,” Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan told Mottaki during their talks adding, “Therefore, the development and deepening of bilateral relations stems from our interests” (Statement by the Armenian presidential press service, January 27).

The main official purpose of Mottaki’s trip was to co-chair with the Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisian a regular session of an Armenian-Iranian inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation. The meeting focused on plans for building a railway connecting the two countries, a pipeline to deliver Iranian oil products to Armenia, and a major hydro-electric station on the Arax River marking the Armenian-Iranian border. Mottaki and Movsisian said they have made further progress on these projects, requiring billions of dollars in funding, but announced no dates for their implementation. The Iranian minister said only that the commission is “aiming to achieve quick results” (Kapital, January 27).

With an estimated cost of $2 billion, the railway project is particularly ambitious. Just how the two sides, and Armenia in particular, plan to finance it remains unclear. The Iranian government reportedly expressed its readiness during Sargsyan’s April 2009 visit to Tehran to provide a $400 million loan to Yerevan for that purpose. The Armenian side, which would foot the bulk of the bill due to the virtual absence of any rail infrastructure in its southeastern Syunik region bordering Iran, is expected to seek the remainder of the funding from multilateral lending institutions. One of them, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank, has already agreed to finance a $1 million feasibility study on the project to be conducted soon.

Armenian-Iranian economic cooperation has, until now, centered on energy, resulting in the construction of a natural gas pipeline inaugurated by the two governments in December 2008. In May 2009, Armenia began importing modest amounts of Iranian gas (approximately 1 million cubic meters per day) and paying for it with electricity supplies to the Islamic Republic. The volume of those deliveries is due to rise sharply after the planned construction of a third high-voltage transmission line linking the Armenian and Iranian power grids. Movsisian said in November 2009 that the work on that line will start in 2010 and take about 18 months (www.armenialiberty.org, November 12). The ongoing reconstruction of Armenia’s two largest thermal-power plants, the main recipients of Iranian gas, should be completed by that time.

Mottaki arrived in Yerevan less than a week after the former Armenian President Robert Kocharian’s surprise visit to Tehran, which sparked intense media speculation in Armenia. Kocharian held talks there with the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mottaki. The official Iranian IRNA news agency cited Ahmadinejad on January 21 as calling the Armenian-Iranian relationship “very friendly” and saying that the two neighboring nations are “determined to implement joint projects and play an active role in regional developments.” Both the Armenian government and Kocharian’s office insisted afterwards that the former president, who has kept a low profile since handing over power to Sargsyan in April 2008, visited Iran in a private capacity, even though he was invited by the Iranian government. Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan, Mottaki described Kocharian’s talks in Tehran as a conversation between old “friends” who share “good memories of the past” and have plans for the future (www.armenialiberty.org, January 27).

Some Armenian media commentators construed Kocharian’s first major political engagement since his resignation as a sign of his impending bid to return to power. Others said, however, that Sargsyan himself sent his predecessor and longtime ally to the Iranian capital to warn the West against pressuring Armenia to make additional concessions to Azerbaijan and Turkey. The main opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), Kocharian’s most bitter detractor, subscribed to the latter theory. In a January 26 interview with Radio Free Europe’s Armenian service, one of the HAK leaders, Levon Zurabian, speculated that a high-profile visit to Tehran by Sargsyan or another serving Armenian leader would have made Yerevan’s diplomatic gambit too galling for the United States and other foreign powers involved in the Karabakh peace process.

According to the pro-government newspaper Hayots Ashkhar, Kocharian’s trip was meant to send a different message to the West. The paper said on January 26 that it reflected Yerevan’s frustration with the Western powers’ failure to convince Ankara to stop linking the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations with a Karabakh settlement acceptable to Azerbaijan. The Armenian leadership, it said, “cannot sit and wait for the West to exert serious pressure on Turkey.”

In what might be a related development, Iran’s Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has invited his Armenian counterpart, Seyran Ohanian, to visit the Islamic Republic in the coming months. Ohanian received the invitation at a February 3 meeting with the Iranian Ambassador to Armenia, Seyed Ali Saghaeyan. A statement by the Armenian defense ministry said they had discussed “regional problems of mutual interest and issues related to the resolution of conflicts.”

https://jamestown.org/program/armenia-showcases-iran-ties-as-talks-with-azerbaijan-and-turkey-falter/

February 12, 2010
Turkey Protocols Sent To Armenian Parliament

Armenia — The parliament building in Yerevan.

12.02.2010

Tigran Avetisian, Karine Kalantarian

President Serzh Sarkisian formally sent Armenia’s normalization agreements with Turkey to parliament for ratification on Friday after his government approved legal amendments making it easier for Yerevan to walk away from the deal.

The government said in a statement on Thursday that the proposed amendments to an Armenian law on international treaties allow Yerevan “not to become a party” to a particular agreement before its entry into force.

“We are now establishing that before the entry into force of an international treaty Armenia may stop participating in it,” Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian was reported to say during a cabinet meeting. He said the president of the republic would be able to “terminate or suspend the process of signing” such a treaty.

Sarkisian announced his intention to enact such amendments in December in response to Turkish leaders’ continuing statements making the ratification of the Turkish-Armenian “protocols” conditional on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh. He made clear that Yerevan will annul the deal if Ankara fails to implement it within a “reasonable” time frame.

Sarkisian reaffirmed the threat during a visit to London this week. “If, as many suspect, it is proven that Turkey’s goal is to protract, rather than to normalize relations, we will have to discontinue the process,” he warned.

Sarkisian stressed at the same time that Armenia’s National Assembly, dominated by his loyalists, will promptly ratify the protocols in the event of their endorsement by the Turkish parliament.

His press secretary, Samvel Farmanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Friday that the president has asked the assembly to start the ratification process. Foreign Minster Edward Nalbandian has been tasked with “presenting” them to Armenian lawmakers, Farmanian said.

Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian described the dispatch of the protocols to the parliament as further proof of Yerevan’s “sincere desire to establish good relations with neighboring states.” He said it showed that “we are prepared for the ratification of those protocols.”

“It is a signal to both our domestic public and the international community,” the premier declared at a panel discussion on Turkish-Armenian relations held in Yerevan on Friday.

“But they will not be debated until Turkey’s parliament ratifies the protocols,” Galust Sahakian, the parliamentary leader of the governing Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), clarified in an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

Sahakian also confirmed that the amendments drafted by the government allow Armenia to withdraw its signature from the protocols. “After all, reasonable timeframes must have an end-point, and if the Turkish side again tries to drag out the process … we will simply be obliged to withdraw our signature,” he said.

“In my view, that reasonable time frame is already expiring,” added Sahakian. “We are just waiting for the glass to be filled to the brim.”

Opposition lawmakers critical of the Turkish-Armenian agreements were less than satisfied with the draft amendments. Armen Rustamian, chairman of the parliament committee on foreign relations affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), dismissed them as “cosmetic.”

“These changes are mainly a political trick with which the authorities are trying to show Turkey that they have such an option and thereby to prod Turkey to ensure a quick protocol ratification,” said Artsvik Minasian, another Dashnaktsutyun lawmaker. He reaffirmed the nationalist party’s strong opposition to an unconditional Armenian ratification of the protocols, saying that would contradict a ruling handed by the Armenian Constitutional Court last month.

The Turkish government likewise claims that the court ruling is at odds with key protocol clauses. It is particularly unhappy with the court’s conclusion that the protocols can not stop Armenia from advocating international recognition of the Armenian genocide.

The Sarkisian administration has insisted all along that the court’s interpretation does not run counter to the letter and the spirit of the deal. U.S. officials have made similar statements.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1956610.html

February 12, 2010
U.S. Envoy Argues For Turkish-Armenian Border Opening

Armenia — Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian and U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch attend a panel discussion in Yerevan on February 12, 2010.

12.02.2010

Tigran Avetisian

Armenia would draw substantial economic benefits from the possible opening of its border with Turkey and most Armenians seem to realize that, the U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Marie Yovanovitch said on Friday.

Reiterating Washington’s strong support for the Turkish-Armenian normalization, Yovanovitch said Armenia’s heavy dependence on Georgian transit routes carries an “enormous risk” that was highlighted during Georgia’s August 2008 war with Russia. The resulting disruption of vital cargo supplies to the landlocked country underlined the importance of having an open border with Turkey, she said.

“The benefits [of border opening], I think, are clear to Armenia,” Yovanovitch told a panel discussion in Yerevan on Turkish-Armenian cross-border commerce. “An end to geographic and economic isolation; expanded export opportunities, especially for the depressed communities near the border; opening of the new transport routes that would reduce transport costs; easier access to Armenia for Turkish goods; increased competition and choice for Armenian consumers, a higher quality of Armenian products … and new export routes for Armenian products.”

Armenian exporters would also gain access to the large Turkish market, continued the diplomat. “In addition, with Turkey and the European Union linked by a customs union agreement for trade purposes, an open border with Turkey would put Armenia on a border of Western Europe,” she said.

Yovanovitch also spoke of significant political and economic benefits of border opening for Turkey. “Turkish companies would have new export markets in Armenia, and by establishing operations here they could take advantage of favorable export tariffs to Russia and other CIS countries at the same time as they create employment for Armenians,” she argued.

The remarks reflect the view of not only the U.S. government but also the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and other lending institutions. Senior IMF and the World Bank officials believe that a positive impact of border opening on Armenia’s recession-hit economy would be felt as early as this year.

Some Armenian political groups claim that cross-border commerce with Turkey would actually damage the domestic economy. They say it would flood the domestic market with cheap Turkish consumer goods and thereby hurt many Armenian manufacturers.

Yovanovitch found such concerns legitimate but said the Armenian government can minimize possible “short-term shocks” resulting from the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations. “Opening the border between Armenia and Turkey will require adjustments,” she said. “But I’m confident that the long-term benefits to both countries and the region far outweigh any short-term economic impacts.”

Yovanovitch also stood by her view that most Armenians support rapprochement with Turkey. “In meeting with people all around Armenia and all segments of the society, my experience has been that while some may have reservations about the protocols or about specific economic consequences or some other issues, they are in general overwhelmingly in favor of restoring relations between the two countries and opening the border,” she said. “Nobody forgets the past, but most are also focused on the future.”

“They are concerned about their own prospects, about Armenia’s development and they understand that an open border would ease Armenia’s isolation, create economic opportunity and benefit Armenia’s children,” added the envoy.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1956612.html

February 12, 2010
Turkey ‘Committed’ To Deal With Armenia

Kyrgyzstan — Turkish President Abdullah Gul addresses the Parliament in Bishkek, 28May2009

11.02.2010

President Abdullah Gul on Thursday assured his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarkisian, that Turkey remains committed to the agreements to normalize relations with Armenia but did not specify whether it will unconditionally ratify them anytime soon.

In a letter to Gul sent on Tuesday, Sarkisian warned that failure to implement the Turkish-Armenian “protocols” signed in October could roll back the “historic” rapprochement between the two nations. “A situation when words are not supported by deeds gives rise to mistrust and skepticism, providing ample opportunities to counteract for those, who oppose the process,” he said in a clear reference to ratification conditions set by Ankara.

“I welcome the thoughts conveyed to us in your message,” Gul responded to the Armenian leader in a message posted on his website. He said Sarkisian “should have no doubt” about the Turkish government’s determination to promote “mutual understanding and trust among our two neighboring peoples.”

“I also agree with you that responsible governance necessitates both standing behind words and supporting words with deeds,” wrote Gul. “Hence, we will continue to work for taking our normalization process forward based upon the understanding reached between our two countries.”

“We have to be aware that concluding this historic process will require honoring our commitments in their entirety as well as displaying adequate political courage and vision,” he said, implying that Yerevan itself has yet to fully comply with the two protocols.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials have indicated in recent weeks that the Turkish parliament will not ratify the protocols unless Yerevan addresses their concerns about a ruling handed down by the Armenian Constitutional Court last month. While upholding the legality of the agreements, the court made clear that they can not hinder Yerevan’s pursuit of broader international recognition of the Armenian genocide.

Turkish leaders say this interpretation is at odds with key protocols provisions, a claim strongly denied by the Armenian leadership. The latter has accused the Turks of seeking more “artificial excuses” to avoid normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations.

Gul’s letter contained no specific demands to Yerevan. The Turkish president said instead that he will “remain personally engaged in this process hoping to see it reach a satisfactory conclusion for both of our countries.”

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1955273.html

February 11, 2010
Bill on “Armenian Genocide” is a cash cow for some lawmakers and Armenian Diaspora

[ 11 Feb 2010 12:23 ]

Washington. Isabel Levine – APA. “Every year the US Congress and Senate try introducing resolutions on the so called Armenian Genocide.

I don’t think HR 252 (bill about recognition of “genocide”) will pass. Because this is a cash cow for some lawmakers and for Armenian Diaspora” – told in an interview with APA’s Washington correspondent Karahan Mete, one of the leaders of Turkish Diaspora in USA.

In response to those congressmen, who are preparing to discuss the HR 252 next month at US Congress, Mr. Mete mentioned that, this is not first time US lawmaker pressing an “unethical, immoral, undemocratic law or resolution”:

“US lawmakers are passing or attempt to pass an alleged Armenian genocide resolution are violating international law”.

According to him, unfortunately, some of the Jewish organizations in US are trying to bring the “Armenian Genocide” phenomena at the same level as the Holocaust: “I don’t see any similarity between these two events except some falsifications”.

Mr. Mete also talked about the challenges of Turkish Diaspora in USA.
“Our problem is not with Armenians around world. Our problem is with the Armenian Diaspora. We should distinguish Armenians that are part of the Diaspora, from regular Armenian citizens. I am talking from my experience. I would say that Armenian people are very nice and kind; specially young and educated Armenians” – he added.

The member of Turkish Diaspora also complained about Turkish Government.
“Unfortunately we are working with a handful of people to overcome on this accusation (Armenian Genocide). This cannot generate the result we desire. In order to get result that we desire, we should educate our people. Educating Turkish citizens falls under government jurisdiction. Unfortunately the Turkish government has no national plan on how to deal with this issue. Past and present Turkish government ran and keeps running to crisis after crisis like a fire truck. Our opponents know that and keep starting fires many places to make us overwhelmed”.

As regards with Diaspora activities, Mr.Mete said that, they are not doing enough.
“What we need to do and how we need to do it is key issue for solving the problem. It will take hundreds of pages for me to layout this strategy. A short explanation might cause some misunderstandings or confusions; therefore I am reluctant elaborate”.

According to him, the other question is why the US and other countries are responding Armenian claims enthusiastically.

“Because the Turkish independence war is not over yet; Independence war is continuing with different from. The new form of the war is propaganda war, which we do not know how to fight. The Armenian genocide phenomena are a tool for some of this country to build negative international public opinion against Turkey. When time comes to invade and occupy and divide the Turkey they have already needed public support to justify their action” – he answered.

He stressed that, therefore Turks need to see and analyze the Armenian phenomena and other issues in a big context.
“We are charging individual issues like a bull charging a red cape. Each time the bull charges the red cape he gets another spear in his back, and eventually gets killed. Each time the bull charges thinking that time is the time I will destroy the obstacle. That is what the bullfighter wants him to do; he can stab him on and on until he is dead. Unfortunately our strategy for dealing with international problems is similar to this bull fight” –he mentioned.
In the meanwhile the meeting scheduled for today between the Secretary of State Hillary Klinton and key figures of Armenian Diaspora was cancelled. The State Department press-service explained to APA the reason of the cancellation as weather conditions in Washington DC.

February 11, 2010
Sarkisian To Send Turkish-Armenian Accord To Parliament

UK — Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian delivers a speech in Chatham House, London, 10Feb2010

10.02.2010

Lusine Grigorian in London, Irina Hovannisian

President Serzh Sarkisian said on Wednesday that he has decided to formally submit Armenia’s normalization agreements with Turkey to the Armenian parliament for ratification despite what he called Turkish efforts to distort their essence. (UPDATED)

Speaking during a visit to London, Sarkisian also reaffirmed his threats to annul the two “protocols” if Ankara drags its feet over their ratification. “If, as many suspect, it is proven that Turkey’s goal is to protract, rather than to normalize relations, we will have to discontinue the process,” he warned in a speech at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a renowned London think-tank also known as Chatham House.

“After the meeting here at Chatham House I intend to instruct my staff to send these documents to Armenia’s National Assembly for starting the ratification process,” Sarkisian said. “I reiterate that as the political leader of the [Armenian] parliamentary majority, I exclude a failure by Armenia’s parliament to ratify the protocols in case of their ratification by Turkey without preconditions in accordance with our understandings,” he said.

Turkey’s leaders claim that Armenia itself set such preconditions with its Constitutional Court’s interpretation of the protocols’ implications contained in a recent ruling. They have singled out the court’s conclusion that the deal can not stop Yerevan from seeking greater international recognition of the Armenian genocide.

“It’s only the Turks that are trying to find something in it,” Sarkisian scoffed during a question-and-asnwer session that followed his speech. “Nobody else, no other involved party, sees anything strange in that decision.”

Like other Armenian officials, Sarkisian suggested that Ankara is simply looking for an excuse to avoid normalizing relations with Yerevan before a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “Would the Turks have been happy if our Constitutional Court had ruled that these protocols do not conform to Armenia’s constitution?” he said. “Maybe they would have been happy, seeing as they are trying to use every opportunity to torpedo the process.”

“I can’t understand why the Turks … attach so much importance to the Constitutional Court’s decision. It’s an integral part of our domestic decision-making process,” added the Armenian leader.

Ankara says Armenia’s highest court essentially prejudged the findings of an inter-governmental “subcommission” of history experts which the Armenian and Turkish governments plan to set up. Its establishment is one of the key provisions of the protocols.

“Did we say in those protocols that the Republic of Armenia calls into question the genocide?” countered Sarkisian. “Did we ever say during the negotiations that we are going to hamper the process of international recognition of the genocide? If the Turks think we did, it’s not our fault.”

In Yerevan, meanwhile, senior representatives of Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) reiterated that the National Assembly will not vote on the protocols before their endorsement by the Turkish parliament. Asked by RFE/RL’s Armenian service when the Sarkisian-controlled assembly might start debating them, Eduard Sharmazanov, the chief HHK spokesman, said: “Everything depends on the Turkish side.”

Razmik Zohrabian, a deputy chairman of the HHK, said the Turks have until the April 24 anniversary of the genocide to ratify the protocols or face their annulment by Armenia. “April is a deadline for the United States as well because Congress may recognize the Armenian genocide. That would be big blow to Turkey,” he said, predicting that Ankara will have to drop its preconditions by that time.

Failure to do that, Zohrabian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service, would lead Yerevan to declare the normalization process dead. “If the protocols are not ratified until then we will not have big expectations anymore,” he said.

Speaking at Chatham House, Sarkisian again rejected the Turkish linkage between protocol ratification and the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying it is only undermining the two processes.

“I, however, believe that the rapid normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations can set an example of a proactive problem-solving attitude that will positively stimulate and set an example the resolution of the Karabakh conflict,” he said. “I would like to take one step further and inform you that I am going to invite [Azerbaijani] President Aliyev to the potential opening ceremony of the Armenian-Turkish border.”

The Karabakh conflict was another major theme of the hour-long speech, with Sarkisian accusing Azerbaijan of provoking an “extremely dangerous” arms race in the region and condemning Aliyev’s regular threats to resolve the dispute by force. He also ruled any out peaceful settlement that would result in Karabakh’s return under Azerbaijani rule.

“Azerbaijan has exhausted the resources of trust in terms of autonomous status for minorities within its boundaries,” he said. “It was not and is not capable of providing guarantees of even internal security to such autonomies.”

Sarkisian did not comment on chances for the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani framework agreement on Karabakh drafted by the American, French and Russian mediators. The latter have expressed hope that the conflicting parties will overcome their remaining differences this year.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1954101.html

February 10, 2010