ARMENIAN AND U.S. PRESIDENTS DISCUSS ARMENIAN-TURKISH PROCESS

ARKA
Oct 6, 2009

YEREVAN, October 6, /ARKA/. Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian had a
telephone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama while visiting
Los Angeles, Sarkisian’s press office said in a statement. President
Sarkisian was in Los Angeles in the third leg of his pan-Armenian
tour of major Armenian communities to discuss and promote his plans
of normalization of relations with Turkey.

A joint statement issued late on August 31 by Turkey and Armenia,
together with mediators from Switzerland, said Ankara and Yerevan
will conduct six weeks of diplomatic consultations before signing
two protocols that establish formal diplomatic ties and help develop
bilateral relations.

The statement issued by the Armenian presidential press office said
the telephone conversation was initiated by Barack Obama. "During
the conversation Obama expressed his support for Armenian president’s
efforts directed towards normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations,’
the statement said. It also said that Obama has reconfirmed the United
States’ official position that Armenia and Turkey should normalize
their relations without preconditions and that it must not be linked
with the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.

The statement said Armenian president thanked his U.S. counterpart
for his support for the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process and
shared his impressions about his pan-Armenian tour.

"The president of Armenia stressed that the concerns of worldwide
Armenians over the reconciliation process is normal regarding that
Armenians were subjected to genocide by the Ottoman empire which
president Obama mentioned in many of his speeches,’ the statement said.

President of Armenia also thanked Barack Obama for the huge mediation
work being done by the USA within the frameworks of the OSCE Minsk
Group towards peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
emphasizing Armenia’s willingness to move on towards a peaceful
settlement of the conflict. The statement quoted Serzh Sarkisian as
saying that the decision of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh on their
final status through expression of their will is key to finding a
long-lasting and peaceful solution to the conflict, as it is spelled
out in the Madrid Principles.

Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic ties since Armenia became
independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Turkey closed its border
with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for its ally, Azerbaijan,
which had a dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic
Armenian enclave of Azerbaijan.

There are several sensitive issues complicating the establishment of
normal relations between the two countries, particularly, Ankara’s
blatant support of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
resolution process and Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the mass
killings of Armenians in20the last years of the Ottoman Empire as
a genocide.

The thaw in the strained relations began in 2008 September after
Turkish president Abdullah Gul arrived in Armenia, at his counterpart’s
invitation, to watch together with Serzh Sargsyan the 2010 World Cup
qualifying football game between the two countries’ national teams.

During that visit the two presidents discussed prospects for engaging
in dialogue and normalization of relations.