EU ENLARGEMENT CHIEF PRESSES TURKEY ON ARMENIA

Agence France Presse
April 6, 2010 Tuesday 8:35 AM GMT

European Union Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule on Tuesday urged
Turkey to press on with stalled reconciliation efforts with Armenia
and linked the issue with Ankara’s EU membership bid.

"Good relations with neighbours are very important in the framework
of any country’s entry to the European Union," Fule told journalists
during a visit to the Armenian capital Yerevan.

"The EU must also make efforts to help both sides end this deadlock,"
he added.

Armenia and Turkey signed a deal in October to establish diplomatic
ties and open their border after decades of hostility stemming from
World War I-era massacres of Armenians under Ottoman Turks.

Ratification of the deal by the two countries’ parliaments has stalled,
however, with both sides accusing the other of trying to alter the
terms of the agreement.

Tensions between Ankara and Washington, which strongly backed the
deal, have added to uncertainty over the agreement. Ankara reacted
with fury last month after a US House panel voted a bill branding
the World War I massacres as genocide.

Turkey’s ambassador to the United States, Namik Tan, headed back to
his post on Tuesday after being recalled during the spat.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in deportations
and orchestrated killings under the Ottoman Empire during World War
I and have pressed for international recognition of the massacres
as genocide.

Turkey strongly rejects the genocide label and counters that 300,000
to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks perished in civil
strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided
with Russian forces invading the crumbling empire.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress