Radio Free Europe
Turkey Backtracks On Talks With Armenia

Armenia’s Eduard Nalbandian said Turkey wants to scuttle the talks.
April 11, 2009

YEREVAN — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on
April 8 that Nagorno-Karabakh’s status must be resolved before Turkey
and Armenia can open full diplomatic relations.

"The Azerbaijan-Armenian dispute should be resolved first," Erdogan
told reporters. "Then problems between Turkey and Armenia can be
solved, too."

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian called the statement an
attempt to scuttle the talks.

U.S. President Barack Obama pressed for an agreement between the two
neighbors during his two-day visit to Turkey this week, but
Azerbaijani parliament deputy Vahid Ahmedov said on April 8 that the
prospect of Armenian-Turkish normalization `is stabbing Azerbaijan in
the back."

Former Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service on April 9 that "the ball is in Turkey’s court."