DAVOS-TURKEY PM: ARMENIA TALKS MAY PRODUCE ROADMAP

Reuters
Jan 29 2009

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Talks between Turkey and
Armenia could yield a roadmap for relations between the two countries
if Yerevan shows a ‘sincere’ attitude, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
said on Thursday.

Turkey and Armenia have no formal diplomatic relations but officials
from the two sides have expressed hopes of restoring full diplomatic
relations as a result of recent tentative discussions between the
two sides.

"If Armenia displays a sincere behaviour in the low-level work, after
our talks last night, today’s talks may somehow set out a roadmap,"
Erdogan said in Davos in comments to reporters broadcast on Turkish
television channels.

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan has held talks at the World Economic Forum
with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian and Erdogan was set to
hold talks with Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan on Thursday evening.

Relations between the two countries have been haunted by the killing
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One, which ex-Soviet
Armenia says amounted to genocide. Ankara denies there was genocide.

Turkey closed its border with 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.

"Armenia should show the necessary understanding," Erdogan said.

"On the subject of Nagorno-Karabakh, we can never leave Azerbaijan
on its own. Our subject is linked to Azerbaijan," he added.

For full coverage, blogs and TV from Davos go to
(Writing by Daren Butler)