A LOOK AT ISSUES DIVIDING NEIGHBORS ARMENIA AND TURKEY
Washington Examiner
Sept 2 2009
(AP) Issues dividing neighbors Armenia and Turkey, which announced
Monday they would establish diplomatic relations for the first time:
GENOCIDE: Bitterly divided by killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians
by Ottoman Turks during World War I, which many scholars consider
first genocide of 20th century. Armenia wants it recognized as one of
worst humanitarian atrocities. Turkey denies it constituted genocide,
contending toll has been inflated and dead were victims of civil war
and unrest that killed Muslims as well as overwhelmingly Christian
Armenians.
___
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: Disagree over Nagorno-Karabakh, predominantly ethnic
Armenian region of Azerbaijan controlled by separatists. Turkey closed
border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with ally Azerbaijan, with
which Turks share common language, culture and religion. Move hurt
landlocked Armenia’s economy.
___
SLAYING OF TURKISH DIPLOMATS: Relations strained by murders of dozens
of Turkish diplomats in 1970s and ’80s by extremists seeking to expand
Armenian homeland in eastern Turkey and vengeance for slayings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Militants also attacked Turkish Airlines
counter at Paris’s Orly Airport in 1983, killing eight people and
wounding 56.