OBAMA BACKS ARMENIAN-TURKISH TIES

Moscow Times
April 7 2009
Russia

ANKARA, Turkey — U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday stood by
his views on mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915,
which he has termed genocide, but said he expected a breakthrough in
talks between Turkey and Armenia.

Obama, asked about the historical controversy during a two-day visit
to Turkey, said he had not changed his mind but sought to shift the
focus onto the Turkish-Armenian talks.

"My views are on the record, and I have not changed those views,"
he told a joint news conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

As a candidate, Obama pledged to call the killings genocide, which
Ankara rejects, and a resolution to so designate them was introduced
in the U.S. House of Representatives last month.

Ankara and Yerevan are engaged in negotiations aimed at restoring
full diplomatic ties after nearly a century of hostilities and may
be on the point of reopening their border.

A breakthrough between Turkey and Armenia could help shore up
stability in the volatile Caucasus, criss-crossed by oil and gas
pipelines which make it of strategic importance to Russia, Europe
and the United States.