Armenian Reporter:

President Sargsian suggests Turkey is misleading international community

Published: Friday July 10, 2009

President Serge Sargsian of Armenia with President Demetris Christofias of Cyprus, Yerevan, July 6, 2009. Mkhitar Khachatrian / Photolure

"We want to eliminate the closed borders remaining in Europe and to build normal relations without preconditions," Mr. Sargsian said during a joint press conference with President Demetris Christofias of Cyprus, who was visiting Yerevan. "But in that endeavor, we do not intend to allow [anyone] to use the negotiating process for misleading the international community."

He added, "Unfortunately, in our case, failure to honor mutual agreements leads to greater distrust and a deeper gap and requires much greater efforts in the future."

Mr. Sargsian until now has argued that the Armenian initiative to normalize relations with Turkey would be to Armenia's advantage even if Turkey ultimately backed out.

Responding to a question posed by the Armenian Reporter's Tatul Hakobyan on April 11, Mr. Sargsian had said, "Is it possible that we have perhaps miscalculated and the Turks have now adopted another position and are attempting to place a precondition on the table? Of course, this is possible.

"But I believe, even in that case, we will come out of the process much stronger. Through this process we were able to once again demonstrate, as was witnessed by the international community, that we are really prepared to establish relations without preconditions," he had said.

Since mid-April, the Turkish prime minister has repeatedly said Turkey would not open the border with Armenia as long as the Karabakh conflict is not settled to Azerbaijan's satisfaction. Thus, clearly, Turkey is backing out and insisting on a precondition for the normalization of relations.

But, as Mr. Sargsian is now acknowledges, Turkey is using its significant diplomatic and public-relations resources to make Armenia look like the party backing out.

Last week at the Library of Congress, former U.S. ambassador to Armenia John Evans asked his successor Marie Yovanovitch about claims by at least one American Turkey expert who blamed Armenia for the lack of progress and who alleged "changing of the goalposts" by Armenia.

Ms. Yovanovitch denied claims that Armenia has changed its position during negotiations with Turkey.

Nonetheless, the effort to blame Armenia for the apparent failure of the normalization effort is apparently intense enough to cause serious concern for the president.

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