US ENVOY URGES PROGRESS IN ARMENIA-TURKEY TALKS
Agence France Presse
June 9 2009
France
YEREVAN, Armenia (AFP) — A senior US envoy on Tuesday urged Armenia
and Turkey to make progress in reconciliation talks aimed at mending
relations and re-opening their border.
Philip Gordon, the US assistant secretary of state for European and
Eurasian affairs, said talks should be concluded within "a reasonable
time frame."
"The process can’t be on forever. But I think the parties understand
that, both sides appreciated this, they need to go forward and they
will," he said at a press conference during a visit to the Armenian
capital Yerevan.
"There should be no preconditions" in the talks, he said, adding
that the normalisation of diplomatic ties between the two neighbours
"would benefit Turkey, Armenia and the entire region."
Turkey and Armenia said in April that they had agreed to a road map
for normalising relations, but there have been few signs of progress
since the announcement.
Ankara has refused to establish diplomatic links with Armenia over
Yerevan’s efforts to have World War I-era massacres of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks recognised as genocide — a label Turkey strongly
rejects.
Turkey also closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
ally Azerbaijan over Yerevan’s backing of ethnic Armenian separatists
in the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region.
Washington has backed the reconciliation effort, with President Barack
Obama calling on Armenia and Turkey to build on fence-mending efforts
during a visit to Turkey in April.
Gordon, who took office last month, was due to visit the two other
ex-Soviet republics of the South Caucasus, Georgia and Azerbaijan,
on Wednesday and Thursday.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
