"OBAMA SAID HIS VIEWS ON THE KILLINGS OF ARMENIANS IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY, WHICH HE HAS PREVIOUSLY REFERRED TO AS GENOCIDE, HAVE NOT CHANGED"
AZG DAILY
09-04-2009
Turkish press; Armenian-Turkish relations
"On the margins of tonight’s Alliance of Civilizations dinner, the
president met the foreign ministers of Turkey, Armenia and Switzerland
to commend their efforts toward Turkish-Armenian normalization and
to urge them to complete an agreement with dispatch," a senior US
official told reporters in Istanbul on Monday evening, according to
Turkish Zaman.
According to the newspaper, "prospects of normal relations between
Turkey and Armenia have caused great unease in Azerbaijan, where
politicians and the media criticize the Turkish government for its
efforts aimed at peace with Armenia despite a lack of progress on
the Nagorno-Karabakh problem".
Speaking at a meeting with Cabinet ministers and high-level state
officials on Monday night, Aliyev declared that Nagorno-Karabakh will
never be independent despite Armenian efforts to that effect. Aliyev
insisted that the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh would never be
accepted by the international community.
Zaman underlines that "any move toward reconciliation with Armenia
requires a careful balancing act for Turkish foreign policy makers,
who do not want to harm Ankara’s strategic ties with Azerbaijan. Normal
ties between Turkey and Armenia could help shore up stability in the
Southern Caucasus, crisscrossed by oil and gas pipelines which make
it of strategic importance to Russia, Europe and the United States,
and push Armenia away from Russia toward the US-led Western camp. But
possible damage to Turkish-Azerbaijani ties also poses risks to Turkey
and the West. Azerbaijan is a major supplier of natural gas and oil,
transported to Western markets through Turkish territory, and thus
represents a key alternative to Russia as an energy supplier".
Speaking after talks with President Abdullah Gul on Monday, Obama
said his views on the killings of Armenians in the early 20th century,
which he has previously referred to as genocide, have not changed, but
he signaled that he would not use the word "genocide" in a traditional
message US presidents issue on April 24, Turkish Zaman reports.