TURKEY AND ARMENIA NEARING NORMALITY

Hurriyet
Jan 23 2009
Turkey

YEREVAN – Armenia said on Wednesday it was very close to normalising
relations with neighbouring Turkey after a century of hostility,
Reuters reported.

The comments by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian followed
similarly optimistic remarks by his Turkish counterpart last week. The
two countries have no diplomatic ties and in 1993 Ankara closed their
land border in a show of solidarity with ally Azerbaijan over the
conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Relations have been haunted by the 1915 incidents, which ex-Soviet
Armenia says amounted to "genocide". Ankara denies there was genocide.

But there has been a flurry of diplomacy in recent months, including
a visit by Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Yerevan in September to
attend a football match between the two countries.

"We are very close to normalising Armenian-Turkish relations,"
Nalbandian told a news conference, Reuters reported. "We can take the
next step and resolve the issue if Turkey, like Armenia, approaches
it without preconditions and opens the border," he said. "After
the border opens, we are ready to form a commission in which we can
discuss issues relevant to both countries."

Since its war with Russia last year raised questions about Georgia’s
role as a safe transit route for oil and gas exports from the Caspian
Sea, Armenia is being eyed as a potential alternative. Better ties
between the neighbours would also boost Ankara’s European Union
membership bid.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said in a television interview
last Friday normalisation 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 normalisation
of relations with Armenia," he said.