ARMENIAN LEADER URGES BETTER TIES WITH TURKEY

Alarab online
July 21 2008
UK

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan called for closer ties with Turkey,
15 years after the two nations severed diplomatic relations over the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

They are also at odds over the question of whether ethnic Armenians
killed by Ottoman Turks during World War One were victims of genocide.

Armenia and Turkey broke off diplomatic links in 1993, when Ankara
closed the border and backed Azerbaijan during its war with Armenia
over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a mainly ethnic Armenian enclave
within Azerbaijan.

Sarksyan said the improvement of ties between Armenia and Turkey is
mutually beneficial.

Sarksyan said earlier this month he had invited his Turkish
counterpart, Abdullah Gul, to visit Yerevan and watch a football
match in September.

"The visit of Gul to Armenia could turn this trend into a stable and
positive movement," Sarksyan said, adding that Armenian diplomats
had recently met Turkish colleagues.

Armenian forces control the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are involved in a long-running peace process
but are still officially at war over the mountainous area.

The tiny ex-Soviet republic of Armenia is sandwiched between Turkey
and Azerbaijan in a region that is emerging as an important transit
route for oil exports from the Caspian Sea to world markets, though
Armenia has no pipelines of its own.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress