Epress.am News from Armenia
On Feb. 3, 2010, Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) Doug Silliman at the US Embassy in Ankara met with Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative Aydin Sezgin and discussed Turkey’s concerns over a recent Armenian Constitutional Court ruling on the Armenia-Turkey Protocols to normalize relations between the two states.
According to a recently leaked diplomatic cable written by then US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey, Sezgin said that the court decision requires the Armenian government “to engage only in a sterile polemical discussion of the events of 1915 in the historical sub-comission rather than the flexible dialogue the Turks thought had been orally agreed and thus removing all ‘creative ambiguity’ from the protocols.”
Sezgin asserted that the court decision directs the Armenian government only to seek genocide recognition.
In the meeting, the Turkish government official notes that Turkey’s other concern is how the court decision affects the question of borders. Sezgin said the decision rules out the “Kars and Moscow treaties as ‘relevant treaties’ per the protocols because they do not apply to Armenia.
“Without these treaties, Sezgin argued there is no formal recognition of the border by Armenia. Sezgin said Turkey cannot separate these legal concerns from their political consequences since legal issues such as border treaties are very easily translated into political obstacles in the Parliament and public opinion,” reads the cable.
“Adding to the argument,” Jeffrey writes, “Sukru Elekdag, current CHP member of Parliament and former MFA undersecretary, told the Ambassador on Feb. 3 the real problem with the court decision is not the border issue, but that [Turkish] foreign minister [Ahmed] Davutoglu presented the protocols to Parliament with the argument that through signing them, Armenia acknowledged the Kars and Moscow treaties. This is important not because it confirms the borders — he does not believe the court decision demonstrates non-recognition of the borders — but because article 15 of the Treaty of Kars gives Turkey (and the former Soviet Republics) amnesty for ‘crimes and offences’ committed during the ‘war on the Caucasian front.’ This purportedly absolves Turkey of responsibility for the events of 1915.”
In his comments, the US Ambassador points out that most of Turkey’s allegations have “clear counter-arguments.”
“The protocols do not stipulate that either side needs to give up their own positions, rather that they come to the table and participate in a discussion and investigation of the historical events, which both sides have agreed to do.
“The Armenian Constitutional Court ruling approved the protocols, and thus Armenian participation in such a commission.
“As colleagues in Yerevan have also pointed out, Armenian membership in regional and international organizations required that it recognize neighbors’, including Turkey’s, borders. The fastest way for Turkey to resolve any doubts over the borders would be to open them,” he concludes.
Photo: Asbarez