ARMENIA SAYS IT’S CLOSE TO MENDING TIES WITH TURKEY
Today’s Zaman
Jan 23 2009
Turkey
Echoing a recent statement by his Turkish counterpart, the Armenian
foreign minister has stated that his country is close to normalizing
relations with neighboring Turkey after a century of hostility.
The two countries have had no diplomatic ties since 1993, when
Ankara closed Turkey’s land border in a show of solidarity with ally
Azerbaijan, which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists over the
Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Relations have been haunted by the killing of Anatolian Armenians
by Ottoman Turks during World War I, which ex-Soviet Armenia says
amounted to genocide. Ankara rejects the genocide claims.
Turkey showed a willingness to step up diplomatic efforts to normalize
relations between Ankara, 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 with Azerbaijan
on normalizing relations.
"We are very close to normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations,"
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told a news conference on
Wednesday. "We can take the next step and resolve the issue if Turkey,
like Armenia, approaches it without preconditions and opens the border.
"After the border opens, we are ready to form a commission in which
we can discuss issues relevant to both countries."
He didn’t elaborate; nevertheless, Nalbandian was probably referring to
three-year-old offer by Ankara. In 2005, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan sent a letter to then-Armenian President Robert Kocharian,
inviting him to establish a joint commission of historians and experts
from Turkey and Armenia to study the events of 1915 using documents
from the archives of Turkey, Armenia and any other country believed
to have played a part in the incident. No positive response has yet
been received to this offer.
Last Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said in a television
interview that the normalization of relations between Armenia and
Turkey and Armenia and Azerbaijan was no longer a dream.
"I can easily say we have never come this close to a plan regarding
the final normalization of relations with Armenia," he said then.
Turkey wants Yerevan to be part of a proposed Caucasus Stability
and Cooperation Platform, a regional organization to urge a peaceful
resolution of conflicts that would include Turkey, Russia, Georgia
and Azerbaijan.
In a recent interview with Today’s Zaman, Gul dismissed claims that
Azerbaijan was unhappy about the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation
initiative and said that Baku was also satisfied because steps in
the direction of resolving disputes in the Caucasus, including the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, were in
everyone’s interest.
Turkish and Armenian diplomats have been holding secret talks on a
potential normalization of relations since Gul’s visit to Yerevan
in September. Gul declined to comment on the diplomatic contacts,
saying only that efforts were under way. "Sometimes the efforts are
made publicly, but sometimes they are carried out in secrecy," he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
