TURKEY FM TO VISIT ARMENIA AMID RECONCILIATION EFFORTS

Agence France Presse
April 15, 2009
ANKARA

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan will travel to Armenia Thursday
to attend an international gathering as the feuding neighbours seek
to mend fences, the foreign ministry said.

Babacan will attend a meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
(BSEC) organisation, which groups 12 regional countries seeking closer
economic ties, the statement said.

Babacan’s trip to Yerevan coincides with stepped up efforts between
Turkey and Armenia, which have no diplomatic ties, to resolve disputes
stemming from a bloody history.

Reconciliation talks between the countries, held away from public
eye, gathered steam in September when President Abdullah Gul paid a
landmark visit to Armenia, the first by a Turkish leader, to watch
a football match.

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia because
of Yerevan’s international campaign to have the mass killings of
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire recognised as genocide.

In 1993, Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of
solidarity with close ally Azerbaijan over the Nagorny Karabakh
conflict, dealing a serious economic blow to the impoverished
Caucasian nation.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week ruled out a deal with
Armenia unless Yerevan resolved its conflict with Azerbaijan over
Nagorny Karabakh.

His comments came in response to Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian
who expressed hope the border with Turkey would reopen before October.

During a visit to Turkey this month, US President Barak Obama urged
both countries to "move forward" in their talks and signalled that
he would not interfere in their dispute over Armenia’s genocide claims.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically
killed during World War I as the Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s predecessor,
disintegrated.

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