OBAMA ENCOURAGES TURKISH-ARMENIAN DIALOGUE

Agence France Presse
April 6, 2009 Monday 7:07 PM GMT

US President Barack Obama Monday called on Turkey and Armenia to
"move forward" in fence-mending talks and signalled he would not
interfere in their dispute over whether the massacre of Armenians a
century ago was "genocide".

Obama said he had not changed his view that the killings of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide
but insisted that reconciliation between the two neighbours was
more important.

"I want to focus not on my views right now, but on the views of the
Turkish and Armenian people. If they can move forward… the entire
world should encourage them," Obama, on a two-day visit to Turkey,
said.

The negotiation process between Turkey and Armenia "could bear fruit
very quickly," he said, speaking at a joint press conference with
Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul in Ankara.

"I’m not interested in the United States in any way tilting these
negotiations one way or another while (the two countries) are having
useful negotiations," he added.

During his election campaign, Obama had pledged to his
Armenian-American supporters to recognise the World War I killings
as genocide.

Ankara has warned Washington that such a move could hit bilateral
ties and derail reconcilitaion efforts with Armenia.

Washington has traditionally condemned the massacres, but refrained
from dubbing them a "genocide", wary of straining relations with
Turkey, a NATO member and a key ally in the Middle East.

In an address to the Turkish parliament later Monday, Obama said
Washington "strongly supports the full normalisation" of ties between
Turkey and Armenia, including the opening of their border.

"An open border would return the Turkish and Armenian people to a
peaceful and prosperous coexistence that would serve both of your
nations," he said.

Obama later delivered his message of reconcilation personally to
the foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia when he met them at
a reception in Istanbul, the second leg of his visit, in honour of
guests attending an international forum on bridging divisions between
the Islamic world and the West.

Obama "urged them (Ali Bacacan of Turkey and Eduard Nalbandian of
Armenia) to complete an agreement with dispatch," a senior US official
said on condition of anonymity.

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia because
of its campaign to have the killings recognised as genocide.

In 1993, it shut its border with Armenia in a show of solidarity
with close ally Azerbaijan, then at war with Armenia over the
Nagorny-Karabakh enclave, dealing a heavy blow to the impoverished
nation.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915
and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire fell apart, a claim backed by several
other countries.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000-500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops.

The dispute is among the issues that Ankara and Yereven had been
discussing since reconciliation efforts gathered steam in September
when Gul paid a landmark visit to Armenia.