Azerbaijan, Baku, April 23 / Trend E. Tariverdiyeva /
Armenia will not be able to influence on Turkey, by suspending the ratification of protocols on the normalization of relations in the country's parliament, experts said.
"Yerevan was wrong in making the decision to freeze the process of normalizing ties with Turkey. Armenia contributed to reducing pressure on Turkey. In the case of the ratification of the protocols in the Armenian parliament, Turkey would be in a difficult position, ex-Turkish Foreign Minister, Turkish MP of the ruling Justice and Development Party, Yasar Yakis said.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree suspending the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols on normalizing relations between Yerevan and Ankara.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree to suspend the ratification of "Protocol on establishment of diplomatic relations" and "Protocol on development of bilateral relations" signed in Zurich October 10, 2009. Armenian Foreign Minister was charged to inform Turkey on suspension of the ratification of the protocols in accordance with the presidential decree.
Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey were broken due to Armenian claims of an alleged genocide and its occupation of Azerbaijani lands. Their border closed in 1993.
Observers said that the Armenian President's decision was caused by the desire to have an impact on Turkey, as well as fulfill the requirement of the Armenian Diaspora.
Armenian and Turkey have raised high expectations among the international community that this process would lead somewhere, instead of becoming just another failed attempt to bring long-term stability to this strategic region, European expert on Caucasus, Research and Teaching Fellow at University of Coimbra, expert on South Caucasus, Licínia Simão, said.
"In this context, Armenia's decision to halt the ratification process should be viewed, in my opinion, as an attempt to put pressure on Turkey to abandon its own preconditions, Licínia Simão told Trend over e-mail from Bishkek.
Moreover, Sargsyan's decision also serves the purpose of appeasing the Armenian Diaspora, while not completely yielding to its pressure.
Armenian expert Alexander Iskanadaryan said that Armenian President's statement on freezing of the process does not mean that it is interrupted. "This is a message from Turkey that the negotiations can not continue this way. Now, one waits any actions from the Turkish side which will change the format of negotiations", he said, Mediamax agency reported.
Armenia's decision to freeze the ratification process was caused by Armenian diaspora. Yerevan failed to resist it," Yakis said.
"By launching this process, Turkey intended to bring the conflict to an end. The protocols were signed for this purpose. But now, after Armenia's decision, we do not have anything that can contribute to the continuation of these processes," Yakis told Trend over phone.
Armenia failed to resist the diaspora's games and pressure, Yakis said.
Experts think that Armenia's refusal to ratify the protocols was dictated by realizing the fact that there is no sense for Ankara to continue the process of normalization of relations.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's statement is purely theatrical taking into account the failure of the Zurich protocols, Azerbaijani political analyst Fikret Sadikhov said.
"Even after signing the Zurich protocols and the amendments to the Armenian Constitutional Court, which contradicted Ankara's interests, it became clear that Turkey will not ratify the documents in the form Armenia would like to see them. Yerevan decided to make a proactive step," Sadikhov told Trend, commenting on yesterday's statement by the Armenian president.
Armenia realized that its mission to resolve its domestic problems by besting Azerbaijan and Turkey is impossible, and Ankara will never ratify the protocols in this form, the analyst said. Thus, the president decided to take a proactive step, he added.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's statement is purely theatrical taking into account the failure of the Zurich protocols signed in October 2009, Sadikhov said.
According to Yakis, Turkey is in a better position now, as it has avoided the pressure in accelerating processes of normalization.
"We should not continue this process until Armenia states its position publicly," he said.
Turkey's position on the normalization of ties with Armenia remains unchanged, the Turkish MP said. The borders will not be reopened without significant advances in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, even if the item is not indicated in the potocols, he said.
According to Simao, the fact that relations between Armenia and Turkey are increasingly overshadowed by suspicion and distrust causes serious concern.
"In general, both sides should not focus on the obstacles they faced, but to attraction of new supporters of the process of opening borders within their own countries," - Simao said.
Sadikhov believes that Armenia is responsible for failure if process of normalization of relations between the two countries.
According to him, Armenia has ignored all the facts, which were laid out in the Zurich protocols.
"It sounds ironic, but Armenia wanted to overcome a difficult situation and the isolation in which it found itself, improve the economic situation in the country, and at the same time continue to make territorial claims against Turkey, push the resolutions on the 1915 events, and refuse to resolve the Karabakh problem, keeping Azerbaijani territory under the occupation. However, this cannot happen." - Sadikhov said.
The county's desire to overcome a difficult situation must be associated with some compromises, especially if a country is at war with a neighboring state and this state is closely linked with Turkey. So, it is necessary to take into account many factors, fine points.
"If all these details are ignored and the country continues to take care of its personal well-being and does not remove its claims and ambitions from the agenda. The result of the situation happened since October last year up to now is quite obvious. Sargsyan's statement is a purely theatrical gesture, coming from an understanding that in any case, the protocols will not be approved by the parliaments of these countries in a such form," the analyst said.