PanARMENIAN.Net

Turkey’s MFA ready to establish relations with Armenia, Turkish
professor says
23.05.2008 16:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey’s policy toward the South
Caucasus states bases on two principles: territorial
integrity and neighborly relations with all states of
the region, a Turkish expert said.

-The Turkish government is willing to enjoy neighborly
relations not only with Georgia and Azerbaijan but
also with Armenia,- head of the department of
international relations at University of Economic and
Technology, prof. Mustafa Aydin said in his remarks
during Caucasus 2007 international conference in
Yerevan.

The February 19 presidential election in Armenia
inspires hope for gradual normalization of the
Armenian-Turkish relations, according to him.

-The Turkish Foreign Ministry eyes the Armenian
diplomacy as `very soviet’, old-fashioned and clumsy.
Our diplomacy, on the contrary, is west-oriented and
supposes joint efforts for normalization of relations.
Reconstruction of Holy Church in Akhtamar is a serious
step on the part of the Turkish government. It’s
Armenia’s turn now,- prof. Aydin said.

-One of such steps could be softening of position on
Nagorno Karabakh. Ankara understands that much should
be done for resolution of the conflict but initially
Armenia could withdraw troops from 7 Azerbaijani
regions. In this case, Turkey could open the border,
which was closed in 1993. Actually, Turkey’s MFA is
ready to establish relations with Armenia but pressure
is too strong. Anyway, I think that normalization of
the Armenian-Turkish relations is not far away,- he
said.