President Serzh Sargsyan has said that Armenia will consider progress in rapprochement with Turkey once the atmosphere in Ankara is right.
Russian news agency RIA-Novosti published an interview with the Armenian leader on 24 April, two days after he signed a decree suspending ratification of the protocols on rapprochement with Turkey.
The protocols 'On the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey' and 'On the Development of Relations between the Republic of Armenia and Republic of Turkey' were signed by the countries' foreign ministers in Zurich on 10 October 2009.
'We haven’t closed the door, but we won’t take any further action either,' Sargsyan told RIA-Novosti. 'We will look at the possibility of moving forward when we see that the atmosphere is right in Turkey, when we see that the leadership in Ankara is ready again to normalize relations. Armenia will leave its signature on the protocols, since we want to keep the possibility of normalizing relations, since we want peace. Our political goal of normalizing Armenian-Turkish ties remains in force.'
Asked whether discussion of preconditions was possible in the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement process, Sargsyan said: 'The principle pacta sunt servanda (agreements should be kept) is a basic norm of international law. The Armenian-Turkish protocols are the result of long and tricky negotiations, during which both sides expressed their positions very clearly and made clear the limits of the possible and the impossible. In this context, the Armenian side rules out the possibility of making ratification conditional on side issues.
'The international community has also noted very clearly that it considers essential ratification of the protocols in the shortest possible time and without preconditions. Turkey has practically failed both elements of this test.'
Armenia has accused Turkey of setting as a precondition to ratification of the protocols the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijan's breakaway territory of Karabakh or at least progress in the peace process. In turn, Turkey has accused Armenia of backtracking on the provision in the protocols to set up a joint commission to study the killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, an event that Armenia says constituted genocide and Turkey says did not.
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