Washington Welcomes A Possible Erdogan – Kocharian Meeting
Journal of Turkish Weekly
May 6 2005
The United States welcomes Turkey’s recent proposals regarding Armenian
historical allegations and a possible meeting between Turkish Premier
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary for European & Eurasian
Affairs Laura Kennedy, who visited Ankara, informed reporters about
her meetings with Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ali Tuygan,
Deputy Undersecretary Ertugrul Apakan and National Security Council
Secretary General Yigit Alpogan on Tuesday.
Kennedy said that the United States welcomes positive assessment of
Turkey about Kocharian’s letter which was sent to Turkey as a reply
to Erdogan’s letter.
She added that there is a strategical interest in normalization of
Turkey-Armenia relations.
Kennedy noted that the United States considered exchange of letters
between Erdogan and Kocharian a promising development and they are
expecting this exchange to continue.
She said that the United States will welcome meeting of Erdogan and
Kocharian during Council of Europe summit in Warsaw.
Upon a question regarding Armenia’s not recognizing Turkey borders,
Kennedy said that they have never heard such a statement from Armenian
officials so far. However according to the Armenian Constitutions the
eastern part of Turkey is ‘Western Armenia’. Many Armenian politician
publicly declared that Armenia does not recognise Turkey’s national
borders. Yerevan further does not recognise Georgia’s and Azerbaijan’s
national borders. 20 percent of Azerbaijan territories have been
under Armenian occupation.
When recalled of Turkish PM Erdogan’s proposal to establish a
commission of historians and Kocharian’s proposal to establish
an intergovernmental commission to research Armenian historical
allegations, Kennedy said that a consensus can be provided regarding
these two different views.
After Turkey, Kennedy will visit Greece, Cyprus, Britain and
Brussels. She said that firstly Greek Cypriot side should convey its
concerns to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to start a new tour of
talks for solution of Cyprus question.
She added that the United States supports Annan’s goodwill mission.
Annan should see the necessary political will in both sides to resume
the talks, noted Kennedy.
Kennedy said that Annan wants to know about concerns of Greek Cypriot
leader Tassos Papadopoulos. Annan wants to learn about those concerns,
and they wanted to encourage Papadopoulos for solution within that
scope, added Kennedy.
Upon a question, Kennedy said that they have not decided yet whether
to start direct flights from the United States to Turkish Republic
of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), adding that the United States exerts the
most effort lifting of isolation over TRNC.
The US and the EU promised to end isolation of the TRNC. The Turkish
Cypriots argue that nothing has changed since the promises.
JTW and news agencies