Azernews.Az

Turkey has moved to ratchet up diplomatic pressure on Armenia after the top Armenian court enacted a ruling last month on the 2009 agreement on normalizing bilateral relations that Ankara labeled as unfair. Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu is scheduled to hold talks on Thursday with officials of Switzerland, which is brokering the process of reconciling the two neighbors, who face decades of hostility, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported.
In a meeting with the Swiss State Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Michael Ambuhl, Sinirlioglu will reiterate Turkey’s concern over the fact that the Armenian Constitutional Court’s January 12 ruling contains points that are inconsistent with the protocols on mending ties signed with Armenia on October 10, 2009 in Zurich. The Turkish official will warn that his country will bring an end to the normalization process if Yerevan fails to honor its commitments reflected in the documents.
Ambuhl is considered one of the "architects" of the closed-door meetings launched by Turkey and Armenia on July 8, 2008.
The Armenian court had ruled that the protocols signed in Zurich were in line with the introductory part of the country’s Constitution and the declaration of independence. The declaration of independence, however, levels territorial claims against Turkey and calls the neighboring country’s eastern provinces "Western Armenia". Moreover, the declaration says achieving international recognition of the alleged World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire is a task facing the Armenian government. The Turkish government has criticized the ruling, saying it contained pre-conditions that run counter to the premise of the reconciliation accord.
The Turkish media said that, initially, Ankara intends to put diplomatic pressure on Yerevan by means of negotiations. Afterwards, a legal document will be submitted to the interested parties.
Following talks with Swiss officials, Turkish diplomats are expected to hold meetings with representatives of the U.S., Russia and France, which facilitated the signing of the Turkish-Armenian protocols.
The protocols, signed in Zurich by Turkey, Azerbaijan’s ally, and Armenia, with whom Azerbaijan faces a long-standing conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh, seek to establish diplomatic relations and reopen the two countries’ sealed borders. The move was an attempt to break the ice in normalizing Ankara-Yerevan relations, marred by decades of hostility due to Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territory and Yerevan’s claims on 1915 "genocide".*