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ARMENIAN-TURKISH PROTOCOLS WILL BE SIGNED REGARDLESS, SAYS DIPLOMAT
Tert.am
11:57 07.10.09

Despite silence from official sources in Switzerland on whether
the Armenian-Turkish Protocols will be signed or not, they will be
signed, says a representative of Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
reports Turkish news source Hurriyet Daily News.

"The statement could be released or not. It is up to the host country,"
said a senior Turkish diplomat. "No matter whether it is released
or not, I assure you that the protocols will be signed," he said,
without elaborating.

Earlier Turkish news reports claimed that Switzerland could not
disclose details of the signing ceremony over fears of the Armenian
diaspora's reactions.

Asked if there would be any participants other than the foreign
ministers of Turkey, Armenia and Switzerland, the Turkish diplomat
said, "There could be. There are a lot of countries that will be
pleased by the normalization of ties between Turkey and Armenia."

ERDOGAN WISHES TO SEE CO-CHAIRS DURING SIGNING
News.am
13:20 / 10/07/2009

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not see any problems
with Protocols' signing, "as the world has known and will see again
we always stick to our promises," the Premier said in the interview
with The Wall Street Journal.

"Our Foreign Minister is going to sign this agreement with the Armenian
Foreign Minister Nalbandyan on October 10," he stated, underlining
that Turkish side is ready to sign the documents "so long as there
is no change to the text."

"We'd also like to see the Minsk group witness the signing of this
agreement actually -- and if the French don't come perhaps the
Americans or the Russians will come. And in addition to that the
meeting in Moldova is very important because although the Armenians
sometimes say this agreement has nothing to do with the Azeris,
there is in fact a relationship. Because most recently, I believe
when president Sargsyan was on an international visit, he was faced
by a reaction from the Armenian Diaspora. So what he does in face of
the reaction of the Diaspora is very important. If he can stand firm,
and if it is the government of Armenia and not the Armenian Diaspora
that is determining policy in Armenia, then I think that we can move
forward. As far as we're concerned there is no problem. But it is up
to the Government in Armenia," he reckons.

DIASPORA ARMENIANS SEND CLEAR MESSAGE TO ARMENIAN PRESIDENT
Gibrahayer
Oct 7, 2009
FROM BOURJ HAMMOUD TO CALIFORNIA

Gibrahayer e-magazine and other combined sources 7 October, 2009 -
Armenians across the world from Lebanon to California, from Paris
to New York, turned the Diasporan Presidential visit, to a chain of
demonstrations, voicing their opposition to the announced Protocols
between Turkey and Armenia. In Armenia the ARF Dashnaktsoutiun started
a hunger strike opposite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

We enclose a chronology of events and the reaction to the Presidential
Disaporan tour as it was reported from Asbarez, over the past week. A
more detailed update with more than half a dozen posts every day,
appear in the Gibrahayer Facebook Page, which has reached 2,700
subscribers.

Meanwhile, 12 political parties in Armenia have issued a joint
statement in which they denounce the current Armenia-Turkey protocols
and pledge efforts to thwart their signing expected later this month.

The statement was signed and published on Tuesday afternoon at the
Office of the Executive Council of the ARF Dashnaktsoutiun, being
its main initiator.

The statement issued on behalf of eleven parties, including
Raffi Hovannisian's Heritage, Aram Karapetyan's New Times, Aram
Sargsyan's Democratic Party, Tigran Karapetyan's People's Party,
the Ramkavar-Azatakan Party of Armenia and others, says that "t he
readiness of Armenia to settle relations with Turkey without any
preconditions is already a serious concession to the country that
perpetrated the Genocide of Armenians and has blockaded Armenia's
border and, therefore, should be the only concession of Yerevan on
the way towards establishing diplomatic relations with Ankara."

HISTORIANS INVITED TO STUDY ARMENIAN MASSACRES
Source AFP
Peninsula On-line
10/7/2009 0:22:38

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Abdullah Gul yesterday urged foreign
historians to join a commission to study the massacres of Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire, envisaged under a peace deal between Ankara
and Yerevan.

"There are all sorts of allegations about what happened a century
ago. It is clear that people who do not know what happened where
or how are not able to take decisions on this matter," Gul said in
an interview.

"What we hope is that historians, archive specialists study this matter
and we are ready to accept the conclusions of this commission. To
show that we are sincere, we even said that if a third country is
interested in this matter, if French historians, for example, want
to take part in this commission, they are welcome," he added on the
eve of a visit to France.

The establishment of a commission to study the massacres is part of
two protocols that Turkey and Armenia said they would sign in a bid
to establish diplomatic ties for the first time and open their border,
sealed since 1993.

The most contentious issue between the two neighbours is the World
War I massacres of Armenians

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically killed
between 1915 and 1917 as Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire,
was falling apart. Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that
300,000-500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil
strife when Armenians took up arms against their Ottoman rulers and
sided with invading Russian troops.

Reuters

ARMENIA, DOUBTS EMERGE
Zerin Elci and Hasmik Mkrtchyan
Wed Oct 7, 2009 12:54pm EDT

ANKARA/YEREVAN (Reuters) - Turkey expects historic accords to normalize
ties with Armenia to be signed on Saturday in Switzerland in a step
toward ending a century of hostility, senior Turkish government
sources said on Wednesday.

But doubts have emerged in diplomatic circles about whether the
ceremony would take place because of pressure from the powerful
Armenian diaspora, as well as opposition within Armenia and to a
certain extent Turkey.

"There are no changes to those plans," a senior Turkish government
source, referring to the planned signature of protocols in Zurich on
October 10, told Reuters. Another government source, who also declined
to be named, agreed.

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakossian told Reuters that
a decision had not yet been taken on when and where the protocols
would be signed but acknowledged they needed to happen shortly as an
agreed deadline was approaching.

"The signing ceremony is very important because Armenia has always
stated its desire to establish relations without preconditions. And
I hope that these protocols will be signed very soon," Kirakossian
told Reuters in Yerevan.

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic ties because of hostility
stemming from the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during
World War One.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with fellow
Muslim Azerbaijan, then at war with Armenian-backed ethnic Armenians.

Turkey and Armenia agreed on August 31 to sign, within six weeks, two
protocols on the establishment of diplomatic ties, opening a common
border and for historians to investigate the events surrounding the
killings of Armenians in 1915.

But Armenia was taken by surprise when Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan announced in New York that the agreements would be signed on
October 10.

Turkish Foreign Ministry officials later told reporters each country's
foreign minister would attend the ceremony in Zurich.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan is on a week-long intercontinental
charm offensive to calm concerns in the Armenian diaspora over the
historic thaw with Turkey. Diplomatic observers also fear the signing
could be disrupted by demands by some Turks for a resolution on the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

Armenian nationalists demand that Turkey acknowledge the 1915 killings
as genocide and protests have erupted in France and Lebanon. Ankara
rejects the term genocide, saying that many people died on both sides
of the conflict.

Once the protocols are signed they must be approved by the respective
parliaments. This leaves open the possibility that either side delays
the approval in case they face unexpected domestic opposition.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Hanging over efforts to re-establish ties is the specter of one of
the bloodiest and most intractable conflicts sparked by the demise
of the Soviet Union.

Ethnic Armenian forces, backed by Armenia, fought a war with Azerbaijan
in the early 1990s over the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh,
an ethnic Armenian enclave located within Azerbaijan's internationally
recognized borders. Some 30,000 people died.

International mediators are trying to put pressure on Armenia to
negotiate with Azerbaijan over Karabakh as part of a wider attempt
to secure a lasting peace in the region.

Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, has also said ties with
Armenia cannot be normalized until there is progress on
Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia insists the two issues are separate.

In the latest diplomatic round, two days before the Swiss ceremony,
the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will hold new talks on Karabakh
in Moldova's capital Chisinau on Thursday.

Turkish government sources said they did not expect any major
breakthrough in Moldova but said the meeting itself would help push
a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute forward.

(Additional reporting by Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi; Writing by
Paul de Bendern; Editing by Charles Dick)

RFE/RL Report

Sarkisian on Last Leg of Diaspora Tour
Serzh Sarkisian meets representatives of Armenian Diaspora, Beirut,
06Oct, 2009
07.10.2009
Aza Babayan

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian arrived in southern Russia on
Wednesday on the last leg of his weeklong five-stop tour of major
Diaspora Armenian communities that also included France, the United
States and the Middle East.

In Rostov-on-Don, like during his previous meetings in Paris, New
York, Los Angeles and Beirut, the Armenian leader will try to allay
the possible concerns among the local and close Armenian communities
over his dramatic rapprochement with Turkey that culminated on August
31 in the initialing of two protocols envisaging the establishing of
diplomatic relations and opening of the border. The protocols are
expected to be signed by the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey
in Switzerland on October 10.

Armenia's Ambassador to Russia Armen Smbatian earlier told RFE/RL that
the meeting in the southern Russian city will bring together some 50
leaders of Armenian organizations in Russia, intellectuals, leading
entrepreneurs and other representatives of the sizable Armenian
community.

Unlike other places where Sarkisian was visiting, no protests were
expected in Rostov-on-Don. However, a number of Armenian
organizations, including `Russian-Armenian Cooperation', the `Ararat'
Union, the `Yerkramas' newspaper editorial staff, had issued a call
ahead of Sarkisian's visit for the Armenian authorities not to sign
the protocols.

The organizations said Turkey is setting preconditions to Armenia in
the protocols that, in particular, contain a clause that commits
Armenia to recognizing the existing Turkish-Armenian border. They also
challenged another clause of the protocols that calls for the
establishment of a panel of historians to review historical
discrepancies between the two peoples that primarily include the
1915-1918 genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Sarkisian, who is completing his unprecedented tour on Wednesday, was
greeted in France, the United States and Lebanon with protests staged
by some members of the local Armenian communities opposing the current
protocols.

The latest protests were held in Beirut as he arrived there on Tuesday
for a meeting with representatives of the large communities of the
Middle East and

Lebanon - Lebanon Armenians protest against proposed signing of
Armenian - Turkish protocols, Beirut, 06Oct2009
the broader region. Thousands of Lebanese Armenians reportedly staged
protests against the Armenia-Turkey protocols.

During his meetings in all four cities, Sarkisian attempted to
persuade Diaspora Armenians that the protocols do not harm Armenian
state and national interests, but, on the contrary, open new
opportunities for resolving the centuries-old feud between the two
neighbors.

The leading Armenian organizations in the world have expressed
conflicting views on Armenia's dramatic rapprochement with Turkey that
Sarkisian initiated last year by inviting his Turkish counterpart
Abdullah Gul to Yerevan to attend a football match between the two
countries' national teams. Since then, the governments of the two
countries agreed a road map to normalizing bilateral relations and are
now believed to be on the verge of signing a deal.

Some Diaspora leaders have expressed serious concern about key points
of the two draft protocols. They are particularly critical of the
planned creation of a Turkish-Armenian panel of historians that would
look into the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Critics claim this provision is tantamount to questioning the fact of
the Armenian Genocide and could hamper the process of the
international affirmation of the genocide advanced by Armenian
lobbyist and advocacy groups in the West and elsewhere in the world
for decades.

Diaspora groups also object to another protocol clause that commits
Armenia to recognizing its existing border with Turkey. They argue
that it would preclude future Armenian territorial claims to areas in
eastern Turkey that were populated by their ancestors until the
1915-1918 massacres.

There are also lingering concerns in and outside Armenia about a
possible linkage between the Armenian-Turkish normalization and the
separate internationally mediated talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan
around the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

In Lebanon on Tuesday Sarkisian held a meeting with more than a
hundred representatives of national organizations and structures of
large Armenian communities of the Middle East, Egypt, Iran and the
Gulf countries, according to the information reported by his press
office.

Before the meeting, Sarkisian met with Beirut-based Catholicos Aram I
of the Great House of Cilicia, the number two figure in the Armenian
Church hierarchy, who added his voice to the lingering concerns over
the protocols in a letter sent to Sarkisian two weeks ago. The two
reportedly discussed the current stage of the Armenian-Turkish
normalization and issues regarding the initialed protocols.

Sarkisian's office also reported that during the meeting in Beirut
representatives of the Armenian communities in the region highly
evaluated Sarkisian's initiative to listen to the opinions of the far-
flung Diaspora about the dramatic thaw in relations with Turkey.

In Beirut, Sarkisian also reportedly provided explanations to various
aspects of the protocols as well as answered questions raised by the
meeting participants.

`The current unnatural situation that exists between Armenia and
Turkey does not suit either us or Turkey. The establishment of
diplomatic relations and the opening of the border will create a
platform, a more or less bearable environment, for continued dialogue
and negotiations,' the Armenian leader emphasized.

Sarkisian also stressed that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
which some in Diaspora communities fear could be slowed down or halted
altogether in view of the Armenia-Turkey rapprochement, is `not only a
matter of the restoration of justice, but also a major circumstance
from the viewpoint of the security of Armenia and the Armenian
people.' `It is a necessity,' the president stressed.

Sarkisian also dismissed concerns that the Armenian-Turkish
normalization will increase Turkey's role in the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan, its ethnic ally in the
region.

`The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will get a solution only when we see
that we've got what our people have struggled for since 1988,' he
underscored.

Armenian and Turkish officials are expected to sign the protocols on
October 10 in Switzerland. The agreement will then go to the
respective parliaments for ratification.

From Roston-on-Don Sarkisian is scheduled to leave for Moldovan
capital Chisinau where he will participate in the summit of leaders of
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, and on the eve of
the summit, on October 8, will meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev for another round of talks on Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Minsk Group
cochairman from Russia, Yuri Merzlyakov, stated in Baku on Tuesday
that no document will be signed by the two countries' leaders during
their meeting in Chisinau.