ARMENIAN FM: ARMENIA READY TO LAUNCH DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH TURKEY

Xinhua
Nov 25 2008
China

ANKARA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) — Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian
said Monday that his country was ready to launch diplomatic relations
and open its border with Turkey without any precondition, the
semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

Nalbandian made the remarks while holding a press conference in
Istanbul, adding that he was hopeful for such normalization process.

"Such developments would be for the benefit of both countries,"
said Nalbandian, adding that he believed there was no big obstacle
regarding the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia.

"Many neighboring countries had problems with each other in different
parts of the world, however they carried on with their diplomatic
relations and kept their borders open," he said.

Meanwhile, Nalbandian noted that the recent visit of Turkish President
Gul to Armenia in early September constituted a good foundation for
the normalization of relations between the two countries.

Nalbandian arrived on Monday in Istanbul where he attended a meeting
of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC) as Armenia
holds the current BSEC rotating presidency.

Turkey severed its ties with Armenia and closed its border with the
landlocked country in 1993 as a sign of solidarity with Azerbaijan,
a Turkic-speaking ally which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists
over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Ankara says the normalization of relations depends on Armenia’s
withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh and an end to Yerevan’s support for
the Armenian diaspora’s efforts to win international recognition for
claims that Armenians were subjected to genocide at the hands of the
Ottoman Empire.

Armenia has claimed that up to 1.5 million Armenians died as a result
of "massacres" during the Turkish Ottoman Period between 1915 and 1923,
but Turkey categorically rejects the accusation.