TURKISH PRESIDENT CONGRATULATED SERZH SARGSYAN ON VICTORY IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.02.2008 17:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey’s president said on Thursday he hoped the
victory of Serzh Sargsyan in Armenia’s presidential election would
lead to a normalization of relations between their estranged countries.

"I hope your new position … will permit the creation of the necessary
environment for normalizing relations between the Turkish and Armenian
peoples, who have proven over centuries they can live together in
peace and concord," President Abdullah Gul said in a message of
congratulations to Sargsyan.

"I sincerely wish that … an atmosphere based on reciprocal trust
and cooperation can be established that will contribute to regional
peace and prosperity," Gul said, Reuters reports.

Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia and keeps their land
border closed since 1993. It denies that the mass killings of ethnic
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915-16 amounted to a Genocide and also
insists on return of Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan