| \n \n<\/strong><\/div>\n <\/strong><\/div>\n <\/span><\/div>\n YEREVAN (RFE\/RL)\u2013President Serzh Sarkisian made late on Thursday his most explicit threat yet to annul Armenia\u2019s normalization agreements with Turkey in what appeared to be a tense conversation with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.<\/div>\n The two men spoke in Kiev on the sidelines of the swearing-in of Ukraine\u2019s newly elected president, Viktor Yanukovich. Davutoglu told Turkish journalists there that the \u201cmeeting\u201d centered on Turkish-Armenian relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.<\/div>\n \u201cWe reviewed the Turkish -Armenian normalization relationship in its entirety with open hearts today, including our anxieties and the obstacles we face,\u201d Davutoglu said, according to \u201cHurriyet Daily News.\u201d \u201cWe spoke about Armenian- Azerbaijan relations and the activities of the Minsk Group as related to the Karabakh issue.\u201d<\/div>\n Sarkisian\u2019s press office clarified that the two held on talks as such, saying that Davutoglu \u201capproached and exchanged views\u201d with the Armenian president during a reception hosted by Yanukovich. It said Sarkisian told him that the ratification of the Turkish-Armenian \u201cprotocols\u201d must be completed \u201cwithin the shortest possible time.\u201d<\/div>\n \u201cOr else, as was stated before, the Republic of Armenia will withdraw its signatures from the protocols,\u201d the office said in a statement circulated on Friday.<\/div>\n Sarkisian first publicly warned of such possibility in early December. He instructed the Armenian government to draft legal amendments regulating Yerevan\u2019s possible pullout from international treaties. The Armenian parliament adopted them in the final reading on Thursday.<\/div>\n Sarkisian was quoted by his office as also telling Davutoglu that Turkey could open its border with Armenia before ratifying the protocols. \u201cA country dreaming about a region without borders should take the first step and end Armenia\u2019s blockade,\u201d he said, scoffing at Ankara\u2019s stated efforts to promote peace and stability in the South Caucasus.<\/div>\n \u201cIf Azerbaijani pressure does not allow Turkey\u2019s parliament to ratify the protocols, then nothing keeps Turkey\u2019s executive authority from opening, even before the protocol ratification, the border between the two states which it itself had closed,\u201d he added.<\/div>\n Sarkisian also ruled out any Turkish involvement in the Karabakh peace process. He pointed to Turkey\u2019s \u201cunilateral military assistance\u201d to Azerbaijan and \u201cbiased statements\u201d on Karabakh made by Turkish leaders.<\/div>\n In a related development, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reaffirmed on Thursday Washington\u2019s support for the quick and unconditional ratification of the protocols. \u201cWe are working very hard to assist Armenia and Turkey in their efforts and we would like to continue to support that effort and not be diverted in any way at all,\u201d Clinton told U.S. lawmakers.<\/div>\n \u201cThe normalization process, which carries important benefits for both sides, should take place without preconditions and within an obvious, reasonable timeframe,\u201d she said.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n __._,_.___<\/div>\n \n Reply to sender | Reply to group<\/div>\n Messages in this topic<\/span> (1)<\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" YEREVAN (RFE\/RL)\u2013President Serzh Sarkisian made late on Thursday his most explicit threat yet to annul Armenia\u2019s normalization agreements with Turkey in what appeared to be a tense conversation with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The two men spoke in Kiev on the sidelines of the swearing-in of Ukraine\u2019s newly elected president, Viktor Yanukovich. Davutoglu told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":783631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |
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