PM erdogan warns Armenian court ruling could derail normalization process

A recent ruling by the Armenian Constitutional Court could derail efforts to thaw relations between Turkey and Armenia, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned yesterday. Erdogan's remarks came at a joint press conference with Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC) head and Turkish scholar Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in Jeddah. In its ruling on the constitutionality of protocols signed by Turkey and Armenia's foreign ministers last October towards normalized diplomatic ties, which await ratification by the two countries' parliaments, the court's reference to the incidents of 1915 incidents drew ire from Ankara. Foreign Ministry sources said the reference violates the spirit of the normalization process with Yerevan. The ruling's references both to the incidents of 1915 and to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh are problematic, Erdogan said. "This will challenge the process unless the mistake is corrected. It's definitely unacceptable to Turkey," he said. "We took the protocols directly to our Parliament, without making any changes. We didn't employ a mediator on the text. We didn't do any reading between the lines. This is proof of our sincerity. Armenia tried to change the text." Erdogan also reiterated Turkey's stance that normalization between Turkey and Armenia depends on progress in solving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In related news, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who accompanied Erdogan during his Saudi Arabia visit, spoke with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian on the phone to relay Ankara's concerns and uneasiness over the ruling, which stipulates that Armenia will continue its efforts to push international recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide, and also opposes Turkey's linking the protocols' success with a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Davutoglu conveyed Turkey's expectations of a clarification by Armenia on the ruling, saying that it imposed unacceptable preconditions and restrictive provisions. He also expressed Turkey's commitment to the spirit and objective of the protocols and said Ankara expects the same from Yerevan. He dismissed claims that Turkey is attempting to delay the process as baseless, explaining that it is one step ahead of Armenia, having already forwarded the protocols to Parliament.