"Switzerland struggles to rescue Turkey-Armenia rapprochement"

Thursday, 11 February 2010 08:42

Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey and diplomats are again mediating between two hostile and neighboring countries, Turkey and Armenia.

The historical process of rapprochement is wrecked after four months passed since the parties signed the protocols in Zurich. Switzerland struggles to overcome the bottleneck in the process through diplomatical contacts. President of Switzerland Micheline Calmy-Rey had a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu before the Security Conference in Munchen. Speaker of Swiss Foreign Ministry also confirmed the meeting. The topic of the meeting was Turkey-Armenia protocols that awaits ratification in the parliaments of both countries. Swiss officials established contact also with Armenia related to this issue. Other than that, Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu held a meeting with Undersecretary Michael Ambuhl.

According to Swiss Foreign Ministry, ratification of protocols is put in danger following the ruling of Armenian Constitutional Court on the conformity of protocols to the Armenian constitutional law on January 12, 2010. Armenian court commented on the protocols and several points in the justified ruling conflicts with the Turkish point of view. Turkey reacted to the comments of Armenian court harshly. Since that date, both Armenian and Turkish governments blame each other for delaying the process of ratification. Armenian diaspora in Switzerland also takes part in the issue: issuing a written statement, Armenian community in Switzerland accused Turkey of making use of Switzerland and trying to pull Swiss officials on its side.

The process of rapprochment was realized in the mediation of Switzerland. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also attended to the ceremony for signing protocols toward normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia.

Stefan Bühler and Markus Häfliger/NZZ Am Sonntag