ZURICH, Oct 10 — Turkey and Armenia plan to sign a deal to end a century of hostility stemming from the World War One mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces although it could fall prey to nationalists further down the line.
An agreement would boost US ally Turkey’s diplomatic clout in the volatile South Caucasus, a transit corridor for oil and gas to the West. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other dignitaries are due to attend the signing.
But disagreements over the Ottoman killings — which Yerevan calls genocide, a term Ankara rejects — and a decades-old dispute between Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan and Armenia over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh hang over the settlement.
Talks between Azeri and Armenian leaders over Karabakh ended without result yesterday.
Under US and EU pressure, officials from European Union candidate Turkey and former Soviet republic Armenia said they would sign the Swiss-mediated accord, which sets a timetable for restoring diplomatic ties and opening their border.
It must then be approved by their parliaments in the face of nationalist opposition and a powerful Armenian diaspora which insists Turkey acknowledge the killings as genocide.
“I hope very much that the process of ratification will be done very rapidly and so the implentation of the protocols can be done also very rapidly,” European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters in Zurich today.
Hugh Pope, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group and author of books on Turkey, said the accord showed Turkey was dealing with the past and was a valuable partner for the West.
A thaw would benefit Ankara’s troubled quest to join the EU and strengthen its role in the Caucasus, he said.
Turkey cut ties and shut its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan which was then fighting a losing battle against Armenian separatists in Karabakh.
Ties between Muslim Turkey and Christian Armenia are also strained by what Armenian and many Western historians say was the mass deportation and deliberate killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War One.
Turkey rejects the term genocide, saying Armenians were among many thousands killed in the chaos as the Ottoman Empire fought Russian, British, French and Greek armies and tried to put down an Arab revolt before imploding under the strain.
Although landlocked Armenia stands to make big gains, opening its impoverished economy to trade and investment, Armenia’s leader Serzh Sarksyan faces protests at home and from the huge Armenian diaspora, which sees the thaw with suspicion.
Armenians demand that Turkey acknowledge the 1915 killings as genocide, a defining element in Armenian national identity.
About 10,000 people rallied in Yerevan yesterday.
In a televised address to the nation ahead of the scheduled signing ceremony, Armenia’s President Serzh Sarksyan said on Saturday Yerevan will push for the recognition of genocide as part of the implementation of the protocols.
“Any relations with Turkey cannot call into question that genocide was committed against the Armenian people. This should be recognised and condemned by humankind.”
Turkey and Armenia will set up an international commission of historians to study the events under the deal, which Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian are due to sign at 1500 GMT today.
Clinton arrived in Zurich today and was due to hold bilateral meetings with Turkish and Armenian officials.
Nationalist lawmakers in Turkey have pledged to vote against the deal, and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this year he would not open the border until Yerevan ended what he called its occupation of Azerbaijan. — Reuters
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