The US State Department welcomed a controversial ruling by Armenia’s Constitutional Court, effectively dismissing Turkey’s claims that it runs counter to the Turkish-Armenian fence-mending agreements. The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon viewed the court decision as a positive step forward in the ratification process of the normalization protocols between Turkey and Armenia
“The court decision permits the protocols, as they were negotiated and signed, to move forward towards parliamentary ratification, and does not appear to limit or qualify them in any way.” “We are confident that both Turkey and Armenia take their commitment to the protocols seriously, and we urge timely ratification of the protocols by both countries,” added Gordon. “Our position remains the same,” said Gordon. “We support the normalization process, which we believe contributes to peace and stability in the Caucasus. What is critical is to keep the parties focused on the vital importance of moving ahead.” Gordon also urged the parties to ratify the protocols in the framework of “reasonable time.” By saying reasonable time Gordon probably meant their ratification before April 24 so that President Barack Obama wouldn’t have a hard time to pronounce the word “genocide.” This statement of the representative of the US State Department immediately was echoed in our political arena. Indeed, the words of Gordon exhilarated the Armenian government. They considered the statement of Gordon as a “slap” and “cold shower” for Turkey. However, Gordon’s statement was construed ambiguously by the representatives of the opposition wing of Armenia. For instance, the ANM coordinator Levon Zurabyan thinks that Obama personally joined the process of reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia and this is also important for his reputation. Therefore, it is quite natural that this country is doing everything to finish off the process successfully. “Gordon’s statement only means that the US wouldn’t like for Turkey to benefit from the situation and torpedo the reconciliation process by stipulating it with the ruling of the Constitutional Court. The problem is that in this process the decider is Turkey. It means that here we need to simply something very clearly. It is Turkey that is to open the border and establish diplomatic relations. And it is Turkey to decide when to open the border and when to ratify the protocols,” comments Zurabyan.
He thinks the US does not have an opportunity to influence on Turkey because America has geopolitical problems in the Middle East with the muslim world. The military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed. The US has big challenges concerning terrorism and Turkey’s partnership is very important in this process. It means that the US depends on Turkey as much as Turkey depends on the US. That is the reason why the US has more compromising policy of communicating with Turkey.
“Even if the US is interested in the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation it will never jeopardize the American-Turkish relations for that. The partnership with Turkey is very important not only due to Turkey’s role in the NATO, but as a link for connection with the Islamic world. We intend to develop our cooperation around issues that we are interested in. We have agreed upon certain issues. However, the US and Turkey have always had very good relations,” F.Gordon’s statement was followed by the announcement of the US National Security Council representative Mike Hammer.
In other words, the US expects that the decision of the Armenian Constitutional Court should not be a reason for Turkey to suspend the process. The ANC coordinator believes Gordon’s announcement is targeted at Turkey. “I think it is an important message for Armenia. They are trying to encourage and give hope to Armenia,” says Zurabyan.
He thinks the decision of the Constitutional Court was “a good decision”. “However in the background the Constitutional Court has brought very illiterate explanation to support the decision. It is not a legal document but a document for the purpose of inner campaign to solve inner problems. It is the reason why Turkey used this text to fail the process. In fact Turkey’s justifications concerning this interpretation are baseless,” says L.Zurabyan.
According to Stepan Safaryan, a member of the parliamentary opposition Heritage party, the decision of the Constitutional Court is a trap and is used professionally. “With his announcement Gordon made understand that there are no more disputes over these issues between the government and a part of the opposition. They also understand that any reservations on part of either the Armenian or the Turkish party may generate the other party’s discontent. I think the message is very specific and clear: the parties should adopt the protocols with the text and in the manner they were signed,” said Safaryan. “It means the American party has clearly said that nothing shall be added to that text. If the Armenian government hoped that through the adoption of the protocols they might move forward or at least generate Turkey’s anger, they have failed because of wrong calculations. I think both Turkey and Armenia will have to adopt the protocols with this text,” said the MP.
“I can’t understand this announcement,” said the head of the Armenian Justice (Hay Dat) office of the ARF Kiro Manoyan. It is worth mentioning that the ARF is the political power which wants to attach preconditions to the protocols before adopting in the parliament. The ARF is working on a draft law to enable the parliament have the right for reservations as well. Hardly Gordon may have made this announcement for the ARF, but now it is clear that the protocols will be adopted by the Armenian parliament with the same text which was signed by Edward Nalbandyan in Zurich. “What does it mean when a state expresses a positive opinion about the decision of another state? It is an issue that the first state does not deal with; it doesn’t concern its affairs. I think that this announcement was made for the purpose of crossing the permitted limits and starting to interfere with the internal affairs of Armenia. The statement saying that it does not envisage any reservations is the point when they cross the limits because in fact it says Armenia should not push any preconditions or reservations,” says Kiro Manoyan. The ARF representative says it means the US is applying pressure on Armenia but there is no pressure on Turkey. “They don’t say anything about Turkey,” concluded Kiro Manoyan.