| After Hitch, Turkey and Armenia Normalize Ties |
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By MARK LANDLER and SEBNEM ARSU
Published: October 10, 2009
ZURICH — Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark agreement to restore normal diplomatic relations and open their borders on Saturday, after a last-minute dispute over language sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other diplomats into frantic efforts to salvage the deal
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left while speaking with Foreign Minister Edouard Nalbandian, right, of Armenia.
For Turkey and Armenia, neighbors sundered by a century of bitterness over the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, the tumultuous day illustrated how hard it is to heal the wounds of history.
For Mrs. Clinton, it was a first taste of down-to-the-wire, limousine shuttle diplomacy.
The arduous negotiations between the countries had been actively encouraged by the Obama administration, and with an agreement in sight, Mrs. Clinton flew to Switzerland to witness the signing as a show of American support. Instead, she found herself performing triage.
Sitting in the back of a black BMW sedan at a hilltop hotel here, aides thrusting papers at her, Mrs. Clinton worked two cellphones at once as she tried to resolve differences between the Armenian foreign minister, Eduard Nalbandian, and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu.
 After nearly an hour, Mrs. Clinton disappeared into the hotel for face-to-face talks with Mr. Nalbandian, who had raised the objections. When she emerged shortly after 6:30 p.m., she strode wordlessly to the car with the Armenian at her side, and her motorcade roared to the University of Zurich, where she and other diplomats engaged in further shuttle diplomacy.
Shortly after 8 p.m., Mrs. Clinton brought the two men together to shake hands, but neither gave a public statement. The agreement must now be ratified by the Parliaments of the two countries.
Any détente between Turkey and Armenia was bound to be fragile. The deal faces fierce opposition in both countries, and even more so from Armenia’s far-flung and politically potent diaspora. Many Armenians insist that ties should not be normalized until Turkey acknowledges that the killing of more than one million Armenians at the end of World War I constituted genocide.
Most scholars agree that this fits the definition of genocide, the first in the 20th century. But Turkey has vehemently denied that judgment, and the government has supported prosecution of Turks who have spoken out about the issue.
As part of the agreement, the two countries would pledge to establish an international commission to research World War I-era archives to clarify the extent of the massacre. Some Armenians fear this will produce a revisionist history that dilutes the enormity of the killing.
For their part, Turks protest that Armenia has yet to settle an ugly fight with Azerbaijan, its neighbor and a close ally of Turkey, over a breakaway Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan known as Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkey sealed off its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan after Armenian troops occupied some territories around Nagorno-Karabakh. There are limited charter flights between Turkey and Armenia, but no scheduled traffic and no substantial trade.
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose party holds a clear majority in the Parliament, has threatened to delay ratification of the deal until Armenia cedes these territories.
Beyond these distant and current disputes, some Turks argue that landlocked, economically struggling Armenia has little to offer the ambitious Turkish economy. Closer ties with Armenia, they say, will only risk fraying Turkey’s relations with Azerbaijan, which is an energy giant.
“We have a lot to sell, but they neither have the money to buy nor a variety of goods to offer,” said Ali Nail Celik, the head of the Businessmen’s Association in the border town of Agri. “They cannot expect us to dance in joy while our brothers in Azerbaijan are suffering under occupation.”
For advocates of the deal, however, normalized relations and open borders would radically improve people’s lives.
Kaan Soyak, co-chairman of the Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council, said that by efficiently using existing rail lines, the two countries could become a “regional business hub.”
The United States, along with France and Russia, played a key role in prodding the two sides to come to terms. President Obama placed an encouraging call last week to the president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, while Mrs. Clinton was in regular touch with leaders of both countries.
For the United States, a reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia would alter the strategic balance in southeastern Europe. It could open new routes for oil and gas pipelines to the West, as well as a possible alternative supply line for American troops in Afghanistan, though administration officials insisted that had nothing to do with their eagerness for a deal.
Given the uncertainty that has hung over this process from the start, American officials were cautious.
“There’s a real debate in both countries, and there’s real opposition in both countries, so no one should think that this is an automatic process,” said a senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the negotiations.
As Mr. Obama sought an agreement, he had to balance the strategic importance of Turkey, a NATO ally eager for an agreement to smooth its entry into the European Union, against the political muscle of 1.4 million people of Armenian descent living in the United States.
After pledging during his campaign to support a Congressional resolution on the Armenian genocide — a perennial source of friction between the United States and Turkey — Mr. Obama has kept silent as president.
Mr. Sargsyan of Armenia received a chilly reception when he recently took a weeklong tour to explain the agreement to the diaspora population in the United States, France and Lebanon.
Despite noisy street protests, some influential expatriate groups in the United States — including the Western and Eastern Dioceses of the Armenian Church, the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the Knights of Vartan and the Armenian Assembly of America — announced they would back the agreement, in a joint statement released on Oct. 1.
Under Saturday’s agreement, known as protocols, the countries must open their borders within two months after ratification, and establish the historic commission within four months.
The most symbolic evidence of a reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia has come on the playing field. The Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, traveled to the Armenian capital Yereven last year to watch a World Cup-qualifying match between the two countries, the first Turkish leader to visit since 1991.
On Wednesday, the Turkish and Armenian national teams are scheduled to play a rematch in the western Turkish town of Bursa. Brushing off critics at home, President Sargsyan is expected to be in the stands.
Mark Landler reported from Zurich, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul. David Stern contributed reporting from Kiev, Ukraine.
NY Times
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Protocol on The Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between The Republic of Armenia and The Republic of Turkey
