B92, Serbia
Jan 17 2009

Turkey: Armenia relations may normalize

17 January 2009 | 15:53 | Source: Reuters

ISTANBUL — Relations between Armenia and Turkey as well as Azerbaijan
and Armenia could be normalized this year.

"I can easily say we have never come this close to a plan regarding
the final normalization of relations with Armenia," state-run news
agency Anatolian reported Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan as
saying.

The step up in diplomacy comes as Armenia may be eyed as a transit
route for energy pipelines shipping oil and gas from the Caspian Sea
to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, helping to make Turkey a key energy
hub.

"It’s not a dream, it’s a realistic estimate to see the normalization
of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as Turkey and
Armenia," Babacan said.

Turkey closed its border with former Soviet Armenia in 1993 in a show
of solidarity with Azerbaijan, a Turkic-speaking ally which was
fighting Armenian-backed separatists over the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population broke away from
Azerbaijan in a war as the Soviet Union fell apart.

Turkey showed a willingness to step up diplomatic efforts to normalize
relations between Ankara and Baku and Yerevan last year when President
Abdullah Gul visited the Armenian capital for a soccer match between
Turkey and Armenia.

The countries have also participated in three-way talks on normalizing
relations.

Relations between the two have been strained by accusations Ottoman
Turks committed genocide by killing ethnic Armenians in World War I.

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