Interfax, Russia
Jan 30 2009
Armenia, Turkey to continue efforts to sort out relations – Yerevan
officials
YEREVAN Jan 30
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has met with Turkish Prime Minister
Recet Tayyip Erdogan in Davos, the Armenian presidential press service
told Interfax on Friday.
"The parties underscored the importance of a meeting of the two
countries’ presidents that took place in Yerevan in September 2008 and
became a turning point in the settlement of Armenian-Turkish
relations.
It was followed by meetings of the two states’ foreign ministers," the
press service said.
Sargsyan and Erdogan welcomed the results of their first meeting and
instructed their countries’ foreign ministers to make a bigger effort
to improve bilateral ties, it said.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has described the two
presidents’ meeting as constructive.
"The meeting proceeded in a constructive atmosphere. Detailed
consideration was given to the settlement of bilateral relations,"
Nalbandian told journalists in Davos.
Armenia and Turkey still have no diplomatic relations because of what
happened in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Armenia demands that Turkey
officially recognize the genocide of ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915, during which, according to varying reports, more than
1.5 million people were killed. Several countries have already
recognized the genocide of Armenians, but Turkey refuses to do so.
The authorities in Ankara, for their part, insist on finding a
solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that would help preserve
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.