TURKISH PM SETS CONDITIONS TO ARMENIA RECONCILIATION: REPORT

Agence France Presse
April 10 2009

ANKARA (AFP) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday
ruled out a deal with Armenia to normalize ties unless Yerevan resolved
its conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorny Karabakh region, the
Anatolia news agency reported.

"We will not sign a final deal with Armenia unless there is agreement
between Azerbaijan and Armenia on Nagorny Karabakh," Erdogan was
quoted as telling reporters.

He was speaking from the southern province of Hatay, where he is
holidaying, in response to remarks by Armenian President Serzh
Sarkisian earlier Friday.

Sarkisian had expressed the hope that the border with Turkey, closed
for more than a decade, would reopen before an October football match
between their national teams.

"We can do the preliminary work (for a deal with Armenia), but it
definitely depends on the resolution of the conflict over Nagorny
Karabakh," Erdogan said.

Recent reports have suggested that Ankara and Yerevan will soon sign
a landmark deal paving the way for formal diplomatic ties and opening
their shared border.

The reports have irked Azerbaijan, a close ally of Turkey.

Azerbaijan insists that any deal should be contingent on Armenian
concessions over Nagorny Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave that
broke away from Baku during a war in the early 1990s.

On a visit to Turkey this week, US President Barak Obama urged Ankara
and Yerevan to "move forward" in fence-mending talks to normalize ties
poisoned by disagreements over the World War I killings of Armenians.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically killed
between 1915 and 1917 during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire,
Turkey’s predecessor — a charge that Ankara categorically denies.

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia because
of Yerevan’s international campaign to have the killings recognized
as genocide.

In 1993, Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of
solidarity with Azerbaijan over the conflict over Nagorny Karabakh.

Ankara and Yerevan have been pursuing a tentative reconciliation
process that has gathered steam since President Abdullah Gul paid a
landmark visit last year to Armenia, the first by a Turkish leader,
to watch a football match.