TURKEY, ARMENIA AGREE ‘ROADMAP’ ON NORMALISING TIES

Agence France Presse
April 22 2009

47 minutes ago

ANKARA (AFP) — Turkey and Armenia, troubled neighbours with no
diplomatic ties, have agreed a "roadmap" on normalising relations
in ongoing reconciliation talks, the Turkish foreign ministry said
Wednesday.

The talks, mediated by Switzerland and held away from public eye,
had produced "concrete progress and mutual understanding," said
the statement.

"The two countries… have agreed on a comprehensive framework for
the normalisation of bilateral ties in a way that will satisfy both
sides. A roadmap has been determined in this context," it said.

The progress achieved so far "provides a positive perspective for
the ongoing process," it added, without elaborating on details of
the agreement.

Rare talks between the two neighbours, whose relations have been
marred by a bloody history, gathered steam in September when President
Abdullah Gul paid a landmark visit to Yerevan to watch a football
match.

It was the first such visit by a Turkish leader.

A major issue on the agenda of the talks was the bitter dispute over
whether the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World
War I constituted a genocide.

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

Wednesday’s statement came just ahead of April 24, the day on which
Armenians remember their dead.

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

Ankara has ruled out a deal with Armenia unless Yerevan resolves its
conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh.