U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned President Serzh Sarkisian late Thursday just hours after he threatened to annul Armenia’s fence-mending agreements with Turkey if Ankara fails to unconditionally implement them, it emerged on Friday.
Armenia Again Rejects Turkish Preconditions
Armenia on Wednesday denounced Turkish leaders’ continuing linkage of Turkish-Armenian relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying that Ankara risks wrecking the western-backed rapprochement between the two states.
Leveraging Turkey-Armenia Protocols, Erdogan Presses Advantage During DC Visit
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having secured at least temporarily, the silence of yet another Administration on the Armenian Genocide, has used his U.S. visit to further press Turkey’s advantage–dramatically escalating his genocide denial rhetoric, reinforcing Turkey’s “Protocols” preconditions for lifting its blockade of Armenia, and attempting to use Ankara’s new found leverage in the Nagorno Karabakh peace process to deliver a pro-Azerbaijani settlement of this conflict, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Obama Hails Protocols as Erdogan Presents Ultimatum
President Barack Obama hailed the Armenia-Turkey protocols and pledged US support for the process as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodagan, on the eve of his meeting with the president, issued an ultimatum to the White House saying that normalization process could not move forward without an end to the Karabakh conflict.