Hürriyet, Turkey
March 9 2009

Turkey is likely to take steps toward Armenia

WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama’s planned visit to Turkey
weakens the possibility in the short term of Washington’s recognition
of the Armenians’ claims of "genocide", according to analysts.

As U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to visit Turkey in early
April, Ankara is likely to start taking concrete measures soon toward
reconciliation with Armenia, diplomatic sources and analysts say.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced during a visit to
Ankara on Saturday that Obama would visit Turkey "within a month or
so."

The unexpected visit will underscore Turkey’s growing importance in
Obama’s new Middle East strategies, analysts suggest.

They also say the planned visit weakens the possibility in the short
term of U.S. recognition of the Armenians’ claims of "genocide".

Turkish efforts

But Turkey, in return, should move soon to boost relations with
Armenia, including taking steps to set up diplomatic relations and
open the land border, they say.

"So, Obama can tell U.S. Armenian groups, ‘Look, there is major
reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia, it’s not the right time to
get involved in the genocide issue," said one analyst.

Turkey became one of the first nations to recognize Armenia’s
independence amid the former Soviet Union’s disintegration in 1991.

But Armenia’s invasion and occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and part of
Azerbaijan proper in 1993 prompted Ankara to close the border with
Armenia and decline to establish diplomatic ties with Yerevan.

During his election campaign last year, Obama pledged to recognize the
Armenians’ claims of "genocide". Some analysts and pro-Turkey
politicians have been suggesting that a Turkish-Armenian rapprochement
may prevent Washington from recognizing these claims.

Robert Wexler, a leading pro-Turkey lawmaker in the U.S. House of
Representatives, said recently that he saw a historic opportunity for
rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia that may lead to the opening
of the land border and a normalization of diplomatic relations this
year.

"I came back from Turkey last week, and it seems to me that we are on
the cusp of a historic opportunity with respect to Turkish-Armenian
relations and the possibility in 2009 for extraordinary engagement
between those two countries, and the possibility of opening of borders
and then things that might follow, such as normalization," Wexler said
in the U.S. Congress on March 1.

Armenians not hopeful

Brad Sherman, a key pro-Armenian lawmaker in the U.S. House of
Representatives, recently said he was "not particularly hopeful" that
Obama’s planned message to the Armenian-American community on April 24
this year "will contain the word genocide," according to the Armenian
Reporter, a weekly newspaper.

Sherman cited Turkey’s importance to the Obama administration’s Middle
East priorities as the key reason.

Top agenda items during Obama’s planned talks in Turkey will likely
include Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and peace in the Middle East.