TURKISH PM SAYS HOPEFUL OVER MEETING WITH ARMENIAN PRESIDENT IN DAVOS

Jan 29 2009
Turkey

The Turkish prime minister will meet the Armenian president in Davos,
Switzerland on Thursday.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will have a meeting with
Armenian President Serzh Sargsian on Thursday evening on the sidelines
of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.

"I am hopeful but I do not know how hopeful Armenian side is,"
Erdogan told reporters.

Erdogan also expressed wish that they could make progress.

Prime Minister Erdogan also had a dinner with Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev.

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul paid one-day visit to Armenia on
September 6, 2008 to watch a World Cup qualifier between the two
countries.

Gul had a meeting with Sargsian, and later the two presidents watched
the soccer game together. Gul later returned to Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and his Armenian counterpart
Eduard Nalbandian met for a number of times in 2008. Babacan visited
Armenia in September 2008 to watch the World Cup qualifier.

Also, Babacan, Nalbandian and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov had a trilateral meeting in New York in September 2008
on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.

Nalbandian came to Istanbul in November to visit the Black Sea
Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Secretariat in Istanbul after he took
over the rotating presidency of BSEC earlier in the year.