PM Sets Oct. 10-11 as Date for Sending Armenia Protocols to Parliament

Friday, 25 September 2009 12:25

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated that he expects to present Parliament with documents to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia by early October, just before a critical meeting between the two nations' leaders. Erdoğan, in a wide-ranging foreign policy speech before faculty and students at Princeton University said the negotiations “have really taken us to an important position.”

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic ties and share a history of animosity stemming from the killings of Anatolian Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey denies the 1915 killings amounted to genocide but has agreed to set up a commission of international experts on the issue under the protocol it signed with Armenia.

“If we don't see prejudice or some domestic political considerations at play, I believe the preparation for an agreement, which has been initialed between Turkey and Armenia, could be taken to Parliament to be ratified. We hope to take those steps by the 10th or 11th of next month,” Erdoğan said in his speech delivered on Wednesday.

Ankara has said it hopes to open its border with Armenia by the end of the year under a protocol to establish diplomatic ties. Anticipation over an Ankara-Yerevan thaw has been growing ahead of a planned visit by Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan to Turkey on Oct. 14 when he is due to attend the return leg of a World Cup qualifying soccer match between the two countries.

Sarksyan has said he will not travel to the game, the first leg of which Turkish President Abdullah Gül watched last year in Yerevan, unless the border has reopened or there are clear signs it is about to open.

Erdoğan said he thought there should be no hesitation on the part of Sarksyan to make the trip.

“If the Turkish president can easily go to Armenia to watch a game, then it should be just as easy and simple for the Armenian president,” to come to Turkey, Erdoğan said. “I think asking for certain conditions to be met to decide to come is not the right way forward in international politics anymore.”

Internalization of democratization initiative

In his speech Erdoğan also touched upon his government's democratization initiative which ultimately aims at reaching a comprehensive resolution to the decades-old Kurdish question by granting more rights to the country's Kurdish citizens.

“We have set off for resolving problems regarding the rule of law, democracy and human rights,” Erdoğan said.

In response to a question from the audience, Erdoğan said their democratization initiative did not solely include the Kurdish issue: “When we established our party, our party program had already included -- whatever you call [it] -- the Kurdish issue or the East or Southeast [Anatolia] problem.”

Recalling steps that have been taken so far such as lifting bans on teaching and broadcasting in Kurdish and the presence of a new state-run Kurdish television station, Erdoğan added a new step has been taken recently, referring to the approval of teaching the Kurdish language as part of the establishment of a “living languages” institute at a state university in Mardin.

“We aim at continuing [the] functioning of this entire democratic initiative process in the short, medium and long run. It is not possible to carry out the entire process at once. We need to continue this process by internalizing and by having it internalized,” Erdoğan said.