TABDC WELCOMES IRAN’S PROPOSAL TO MEDIATE BETWEEN ANKARA AND YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
29.07.2008 14:42 GMT+04:00

Kaan Soyak, co-chairman of the Turkey-Armenia business development
council (TABDC), welcomed Iran’s proposal to mediate between Ankara
and Yerevan. Pointing out to the fact that Turkey and Armenia are on
the brink of a breakthrough, Soyak said for the first time regional
countries and the Minsk Group (the United States, Russia and France)
all agreed on the need for peace between the two countries, the
Anatolia News Agency reports.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki offered his country’s
mediation for Armenia-Turkey reconciliation during a phone conversation
with RA FM Edward Nalbandian.

Turkey severed its ties and closed its border with Armenia in 1993
as a token of solidarity with Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh issue.

Ankara also says the normalization of ties depends on Armenia’s formal
recognition of the current borders with Turkey and changing its policy
of calling for worldwide recognition of the Armenian Genocide at the
hands of the Ottoman Empire.

In a sign of readiness to normalize ties, Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan proposed "a fresh start" in relations with Turkey
in an article published in The Wall Street Journal earlier this
month. Sargsyan also invited Gul to a World Cup qualifying match
between Armenian and Turkish teams on September 6.