U.S. continues push for Armenia-Turkey protocols

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Thursday February 04, 2010

Deputy Secretary Steinberg (right) in Yerevan with Foreign Minister Nalbandian on Feb. 4. Photolure

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Washington - Senior U.S. officials have resumed calls on Armenia and Turkey to ratify protocols on normalization of relations that the two countries signed last October.

Implementation of the protocols hinges on parliamentary ratification which Turkey has made conditional on what it would qualify as progress in Karabakh talks. Armenia along with U.S., Russia and European countries is rejecting the link.

Armenian officials have indicated they might rescind the protocols unless Turkey moves to ratify them in the next two months.

On January 27-28, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers during an international conference on Afghanistan held in London, encouraging them to move ahead with the process. Mrs. Clinton's chief deputy James Steinberg will visit Yerevan and two other Caucasus capitals on February 4.

The Secretary of State is also expected to discuss Armenia-Turkey process with several Armenian-American groups during a meeting planned for February 9.

But in a surprising departure from the State Department's rhetoric, Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, suggested in congressional testimony on February 2 that U.S.-facilitated "Turkey-Armenia rapprochement has affected the delicate relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and increases the risk of a renewed conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh."

State Department officials have argued that this rapprochement would contribute to regional peace.