Turkey confirms contacts with ‘unwilling’ Armenia

Agence France Presse — English
April 22, 2005 Friday

ISTANBUL April 22 — Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Friday
urged him his Armenian counterpart Vardan Oskanian to respond to
good will gestures he made at unofficial meetings between the two
countries that have no diplomatic relations.

“I’ve met the Armenian foreign minister six times, it’s no secret. We
have no diplomatic relations but we do have contacts,” said Gul.

Turkish daily Milliyet Friday said meetings had been held over the
past three years in neutral locations with the aim of establishing
a raft of ten confidence-building measures between the two.

Relations between Turkey and Armenia have been dogged by, among other
events, the mass killings of Armenians during the fall of the Ottoman
Empire (the predecessor of modern Turkey) 90 years ago.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire,
was falling apart.

Ankara counters that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were
killed in “civil strife” during World War I when the Armenians rose
against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

“We have made one gesture after another, but they have not
reciprocated. They too (the Armenians) have to take steps,” said Gul.

Gul pointed to the opening of air routes between the two countries
as one gesture made by Turkey, and a regional trade initiative for
Black Sea cooperation as another.

“In Turkey there are 40,000 Armenians working and saving money to
send home,” said Gul.

Turkey wants Armenia to hand back the Nagorny Karabakh enclave to
Azerbaijan. Armenia seized the Armenian majority territory in 1994
after a regional conflict with Azerbaijan.

Turkey recognised Armenia on its 1991 independence but has never
established diplomatic relations with it. Ankara closed its frontier
with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Turkish-speaking Azerbaijan.