“Failure to implement the Ankara-Yerevan normalization deal will likely strengthen ‘genocide bills’ in US Congress,” Turkish Hurriyet daily reports.

“Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's talks with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House earlier this week have mostly been viewed as a success by analysts. However, an uphill reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia may be the sign of a creeping deterioration in U.S.-Turkish ties next year,” the source reads.

“The issue at the root of the problem is the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Turkey's close friend and ally. Erdogan told Obama that reopening the border before progress is achieved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would ruin Turkey's ties with Azerbaijan and be viewed as completely unacceptable to Turkish voters,” the daily informs. “The normalization process between Turkey and Armenia is very much related to these issues,” Erdogan emphasized.

“But even at a time when Washington is pushing for the normalization process to be implemented ‘without preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe,’ analysts agree that strong progress toward putting an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute seems unlikely, at least in the short term. These all point to a potential stall in the Turkey-Armenia reconciliation process,” the source outlines.

L.A.