TURKEY, ARMENIA DISCUSS GENOCIDE, MOVE TO OPEN BORDER (UPDATE2)
By Mark Bentley and Firat Kayakiran

Bloomberg
Nov 24 2008

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian
said he saw no barriers to normalizing relations with Turkey before
talks with counterpart Ali Babacan.

The two men will meet in Istanbul tonight to discuss re- establishing
trade and diplomatic ties, as well as Armenian allegations of genocide
in 1915 by Turks against 1.5 million of its people. A border between
the two countries has remained closed since 1993.

"I don’t think there are any real obstacles to the normalization
of ties," Nalbandian told a news conference in Turkey’s largest
city. "We are ready to start diplomatic relations with Turkey without
any preconditions. This includes opening borders."

The U.S. and the European Union have welcomed closer contacts between
the two countries as a means to enhance political stability in a
region that includes Russia and Georgia, which fought a five-day war
in August over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Turkey shut the border to protest Armenia’s military incursion
into Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan
that declared independence in 1992. Turkey has called on Armenia to
resolve the dispute with Azerbaijan as a pre- condition for re-opening
the border.

Today’s initiative follows a trip by Turkish President Abdullah Gul to
the Armenian capital Yerevan two months ago, when he met with President
Serzh Sargsyan on the sidelines of a World Cup soccer qualifier. It
was the first visit to Armenia by a Turkish head of state. Gul said the
alleged genocide, denied by Turkey, wasn’t discussed during the trip.

Sargsyan has accepted an invitation by Gul to travel to Turkey next
October to watch the return leg between the two teams in World Cup
Group 5, Nalbandian said.

Nalbandian will meet with Babacan at 7 p.m. local time. The two leaders
won’t hold a joint news conference, the Turkish foreign ministry’s
press office said.