TURKEY ANNOUNCES END TO COLD WAR WITH ARMENIA
Russia Today
June 11 2009
The Cold War between Turkey and Armenia is over and Ankara is expecting
a visit by President Serzh Sargsyan, said Turkey’s Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu.
Yahoo StumbleUpon Google Live Technorati Scoop del.icio.us Digg Sphinn
Furl Reddit The two countries do not have diplomatic relations, and
the Armenian-Turkish border has been closed since 1993 on Ankara’s
initiative.
"A Cold War period has come to an end," Interfax quotes Davutoglu as
saying, with reference to the Turkish media.
The minister noted Turkish-Armenian relations are no longer based on
the enemy concept. He added contacts between Ankara and Yerevan also
serve the interests of Azerbaijan.
For his part, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan said
his country is aware of the statements by the Turkish official and
welcomes them.
Nalbandyan confirmed Armenia’s readiness to settle relations with
neighboring Turkey without prerequisites.
"Armenia can say the only thing: it is ready to settle its relations
with Turkey without any prerequisites, and if the recent statement of
the Turkish FM is made in this context and Turkey is ready to move
in this direction, we can do nothing but welcome this process," he
stated at a media conference on Thursday, Newsarmenia website reports.
Sargsyan’s visit to Turkey is scheduled for October when a football
match will take place between the Turkish and Armenian national squads.
Turkey has insisted on a series of prerequisites for the settlement
of bilateral ties. One of the main demands is that Armenia should
drop its policy aimed at international recognition of the Armenian
genocide in the Ottoman Empire during and just after WWI – when around
1.5 million Armenians were believed to have died.
For the last two years the two countries have been holding closed
talks in Switzerland aimed at normalizing their relations.
The thaw in the Turkish-Armenian relations started in September 2008,
when Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul first arrived in the Armenian
capital Yerevan on the invitation of his Armenian counterpart Serzh
Sargsyan to watch a football match between two countries’ teams. In
response, the Turkish leader then came up with an invitation to attend
a football game in Turkey in October 2009. Back then the meeting was
dubbed "football diplomacy" and a "historic event" by the world media.
On April 23, 2009, both the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministries
and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs announced launching
a road map for the settlement of bilateral relations.