TURKISH, ARMENIAN FMS HOLD RARE MEETING IN ISTANBUL

Agence France Presse — English
June 25, 2007 Monday

Turkey’s Foreign Ministers Abdullah Gul and his Armenian counterpart
Vardan Oskanian held a rare meeting on the troubled ties between the
two neighbours here Monday.

The two ministers, whose countries do not have diplomatic relations,
met for about 20 minutes on the sidelines of a summit of the
organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

Turkey refuses to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia because
of Yerevan’s campaign for the international recognition of mass
killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I
as genocide.

In 1993, Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of
solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at war with
Armenia over the territory of Nagorny-Karabakh, dealing a heavy
economic blow on the impoverished nation.

Oskanian told Gul that Armenia wanted to improve ties with Turkey
and stressed that the reopening of the border would help mend fences,
a Turkish diplomat said.

Gul responded that Armenia should work to resolve the Nagorny-Karabakh
dispute with Azerbaijan.

"We also expect some gestures from you," the diplomat quoted Gul as
saying in reference to a Turkish proposal to set up a joint committee
of Turkish and Armenian academics to study the genocide allegations.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in deportations
and systematic killings under the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of
modern-day Turkey, and want the killings to be recognised as genocide.

Ankara categorically rejects the label and argues that 300,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife during
World War I when the Armenians took up arms for independence in
eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling
Ottoman Empire.

Turkish and Armenian officials have met several other times on the
sidelines of international gatherings.