NO STEPS SHOULD HARM TURKEY-ARMENIA RELATIONS: TURKISH OFFICIAL

Hurriyet
Oct 29 2008
Turkey

Steps that would harm Turkey should be avoided if the aim is the
development of Turkish-Armenian relations, the country’s chief
foreign policy advisor to the prime minister said Tuesday following
his contacts in Washington. (UPDATED)

"We are in an era in which mutual confidence based relations
between Turkey and Armenia have started. A wrong step not only harms
cooperation between Turkey and the United States, but also risks such
expansions from Turkey," Ahmet Davutoglu, chief foreign policy advisor
to the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, told reporters in Washington.

Davutoglu’s remarks came after he met U.S. officials, including the
advisors of both U.S. presidential candidates Democrat Barack Obama,
who has repeatedly made remarks in favor of the so-called Armenian
"genocide" claims, and Republican John McCain.

There is no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey, as
Armenia presses the international community to admit the so-called
"genocide" claims instead of accepting Turkey’s call to investigate
the allegations, and Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan.

A warmer period began between Turkey and Armenia after Turkish
President Abdullah Gul paid a landmark visit to Armenia early
September.

"Such remarks are made in the presidential election campaign. But
when you take over the administration, you need to be interested in
all problems in the world.

The U.S. is expected to refrain from jeopardizing cooperation with
a strong strategic ally like Turkey," added Davutoglu, who also met
top White House officials in Washington.

Armenia, with the backing of the Diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. Turkey
rejects the claims, saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least
as many Turks died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took
up arms, backed by Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.

In 2005, Erdogan took a first step towards resolving the issue by
proposing a joint commission of historians launch an investigation and
publish their conclusions, but the proposal was rejected by Yerevan.

Davutoglu also said he did not meet the leader of the Kurdish regional
administration, Massoud Barzani, who is also in Washington.

U.S.-TURKEY RELATIONS Davutoglu earlier on Tuesday attended a meeting
on "Turkey, the region and U.S.-Turkey relations: Assessing the
challenges and prospects" at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

He told at the meeting that the new era with the United States would be
a success story whoever was elected the new president of that country.

"The new president of the United States will be Turkey’s best friend,"
Davutoglu said.

He also said Turkey was ready to discuss negative problems with
Armenia, adding two countries should seize recent opportunities in
their relations.

Davutoglu said he expected that the Armenian Diaspora should support
the process between Turkey and Armenia, and said this new process
had not caused concerns in Azerbaijan and relations among Turkey,
Armenia and Azerbaijan would go on synchronously.

He said there was need for courage and creativity to solve the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, and no one could wait for 20-30 years more
to resolve the issue.

Davutoglu said all frozen clashes were occurring in the geography
where Turkey was situated, and said the real problem was how a new
world order could be established.