YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has reassured Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian that the United States will continue to seek a quick and unconditional normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations, official Yerevan said on Friday.
The two met in London Thursday on the sidelines of an international conference on Afghanistan. Turkey’s threats to stall on the parliamentary ratification of the Turkish-Armenian agreements over a ruling handed down by Armenia’s Constitutional Court were apparently high on the agenda.
“Hillary Clinton reaffirmed U.S. support for the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey and a speedy ratification and implementation of the signed protocols,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said Nalbandian reiterated for his part that the court ruling only testifies to the Armenian leadership’s commitment to the letter and spirit of the protocols. “He added that Armenia expects the same approach from Turkey,” it said.
The Turkish government has denounced the ruling as an attempt to re-write key provisions of the protocols. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stood by this claim when he met Clinton in London on Wednesday. “I am of the opinion that the United States better understands Turkey’s concerns,” “Hurriyet Daily News” quoted him as telling journalists on Friday.
“We believe [the court ruling] brings restrictions to the protocols. We raised our expectation that the process should not be blurred,” Davutoglu said, commenting on his short conversation with Nalbandian on Thursday. “We have open-mindedly exchanged our views,” he added.
While in London, Davutoglu also met with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov. He welcomed on Friday “progress” in the international efforts to broker a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “If some other concerns emerge from domestic politics, we will move further from the peace vision,” the Turkish minister noted without elaboration.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Clinton and Nalbandian also discussed the Karabakh peace process. It said Nalbandian briefed Clinton on the results of this week’s meeting in Russia of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents.
Now he’s going to have to wash his hand.
He has to use blood to try to clean his hands. Because you can only clean blood by blood!
Asbarez really needs to stop selectively picking out things to post from Radio Liberty, at the very least it’s bad journalism. If you guys are such big fans, you should really give some of their other stuff a read — you might learn a thing or two.
And if you’re going to use the “we’re an organ of the ARF” excuse, you should take this out of your About Me section: “In keeping with changing times, Asbarez brought its tradition of accurate reporting and coverage of Armenian issues to the web by going online in 1994 and launching its web component in 1997.”
Accurate reporting? Since when?
GET AWAY MRS. CLINTON
LEAVE ARMENIA, HAVE ARMENIANS TO
GOVERN, NOT OTHERS.
I suggest the quick recognizance of the Armenian genocide by United States of America,say exactly on April-24-2010
The Constitutional Court of Armenia has said what it needs to be said and the decision is very clear. There is one thing left for Serzh Sargsyan and Eduard Nalbandyan to do and it is for both of them to resign and leave Armenia for good. These two traitors and imposters have nothing to do in Armenia anymore.
Armenias do not need assurances of H. Clinton. Hillary Clinton can not force us to accept the protocols which are not in the interest of Armenian Nation. H. Clinton would favor us greately if she finds a job for this traitor E. Nalbandyan outside of Armenia. Armenians must get rid of this imposter as soon as possible.
“If some other concerns emerge from domestic politics, we will move further from the peace vision,”
What would be Turkey’s mission moving further from the peace vision? War! With whom? Armenia! This is creature that expect us to trust him! I don’t. Some Turks may be.
Don’t believe a word from the Clinton’s,no friend of Armenia or the Armenian nation.
Hye,
Hilary, head of the US State Department has asked for a meeting this February to discuss the Protocols between Armenia and Turkey.
In putting this meeting together, she has turned largely to Armenian organizations in America that are aligned with the Administration’s Protocols policy, not those who, at the grassroots level, speak for the actual community, which is lined up nearly entirely against these dangerous agreements.
Sadly, the door to this type of amateur divide/conquer game-playing was opened by the leadership in Armenia, which put the Armenian nation’s rights on the auction block in front of the world, signaling to everyone, near and far, that they are not like those stubborn diasporans who keep insisting upon the inconvenient reality (for officials in DC) that Armenians have real rights and need actual security. For a couple of photos with Hillary and a phone call with Obama, they traded away generations of community effort, a lot like the Indian “sale” of Manhattan!
I won’t mention the Turkish side, because, although they remain rabidly anti-Armenian, there’s really nothing new or surprising in their century long effort to bury the Armenian Cause and Armenia with it. It’s the weakness of Armenian quislings that, today, is vital to helping Turkey pursue these policies.
There was only one exception to the State Department’s one-sided invitations, and that was the ANCA. You can bet that the State Department would have liked to exclude them too, along with the voices of the hundreds of thousands of Armenians who support this grassroots group and/or are part of the Prelacy, are Armenian Catholic, or Armenian Evangelical, or are members or supporters of the ARS, AYF, Ramgavars, Hunchaks, or any number of other real, hard-working, principled groups. Turns out that they just didn’t’ have the nerve to go to the ridiculous extreme of excluding ANCA, but they took every step short of this.
Why?
Because U.S. policymakers know they are sellouts to Turkey, that these officials humiliate America every time they cave in, once again, to Turkey on the Armenian Genocide or any number of other human rights issues. Seeking to escape responsibility – both to themselves and in the court of public opinion – the State Department is always looking for some random Armenian token character/group to play the role of the useful idiot by giving political cover to the State Department’s betrayal of American values and Armenian voters. Sadly, these Fredo Corleone’s are not hard to find, and come at a very cheap price. (if you don’t get this reference, rent the Godfather.)
The Turkish government’s denial of truth/justice is immoral, but totally expected. The US government going along is deeply sad, but par for the course. We need to challenge both Ankara and DC’s denials with all our strength. But, if we are to be successful, we also need to be active on a third front as well, within the Armenian world (diaspora/homeland), sending the signal to each and every “Fredo” that treachery will not be condoned or allowed to continue.
Manooshag
Clinton is lying to both sides. Americans have always been terrible liars
The Americans have to understand one thing.
There is no place for Turks in Asia Minor
The sooner they accept this ,the less problems they will have in the future.
The Armenians are the indigenous people of this land
I know that you dont care about talk like that
Because the indigenous people of America were also slaughtered
You probably think what the Turks did was not a big deal
Let me remind you that we are not like the North American indigenous people
Obama and his team tried to take us for idiots
You thought you could fool us with 1 footbal game.
Here is my recomendation to the Americans
Stop supporting Turks and dont play dirty with us