TURKEY SEEKS MEETING WITH ARMENIA

Middle East Online
id=27811
Sept 10 2008
UK

Turkish FM to organise meeting with counterpart from Armenia to
discuss decades-old disputes.

ANKARA – Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan Wednesday said he
was trying to organise a meeting with counterparts from Armenia and
Azerbaijan to discuss decades-old disputes plaguing ties between them.

The idea, Babacan said, emerged during a historic visit to Yereven
by President Abdullah Gul on Saturday, which raised hopes that Turkey
and Armenia could overcome traditional enmity and establish diplomatic
relations.

"We have many reasons to be hopeful, the most important of which is
the presence of a strong political will" to improve ties, the minister
said in an interview with NTV television.

Babacan and Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian are already
scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New
York later this month.

Babacan said he suggested that their Azeri counterpart also join the
meeting and Nalbandian agreed.

"We will now seek Azerbaijan’s consent… The problems between Turkey
and Armenia and not independent from the problems between Azerbaijan
and Armenia," he said.

The issue would be discussed when Gul visits Baku later Wednesday,
he said.

Babacan said Gul’s visit to Armenia, the first by a Turkish head of
state, had raised hopes that the two sides could mend fences.

"In our talks in Yereven we decided to speed up the process (of
reconciliation)… We are entering a period in which we will have
frequent contacts," he told NTV.

Gul travelled to Yereven for several hours to watch a World Cup
qualifying football match between Turkey and Armenia following an
invitation by his counterpart Serzh Sarkisian.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people were killed between
1915 and 1917 in orchestrated massacres during World War I as the
Ottoman Empire fell apart.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000-500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops.

In 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed a
joint commission of historians to investigate the World War I events,
saying Turkey should not be ashamed of its history. Armenia rejected
the idea claiming it was a political maneouvre.