The Kurdish and Cyprus issues and probable early elections in Turkey have put off ratification of the protocols, according to expert Ruben Melkonyan.
“These problems may allow Turkey to drag out the ratification process,” he told a news conference in Yerevan on Friday. “Anyway, the Armenian leadership will never agree to link the Karabakh settlement to the normalization of relations with Turkey.”
“It’s hard to make forecasts but I don’t think Turkey will ratify the protocols if Armenia doesn’t make concessions on Karabakh,” Melkonyan said.
The Protocols envisage the normalization of bilateral ties and the opening of the border between Armenia and Turkey. They were signed in Zurich by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on 10 October 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks held with Swiss mediation.
On 12 January 2010 the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia ruled that the protocols conform to the country’s constitution.
