ARMENIAN, TURKISH LEADERS TO MEET IN WASHINGTON
Voice of America
April 8 2010
The president of Armenia and prime minister of Turkey will meet in
Washington next week to try to revive a reconciliation process between
the two nations.
Armenia said Thursday its president, Serzh Sarkisyan, will hold talks
with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of
a nuclear security summit. Turkish envoy Feridun Sinirlioglu requested
the meeting during a visit to Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, Wednesday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday Ankara hopes its
reconciliation process with Armenia will move in the right direction
in the coming weeks.
The Turkish and Armenian governments signed agreements last October
to establish diplomatic ties and open their border after decades of
hostility. But efforts to secure parliamentary approval have stalled.
Turkish-Armenian relations have been strained for a century due
a dispute about the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks
during and after World War One. Armenians insist the massacres were
genocide, but Turkey strongly rejects that label.
Turkey’s efforts to reconcile with Armenia have worried Turkish ally
Azerbaijan, a longtime foe of Yerevan.
Ankara says Turkish envoy Sinirlioglu will visit Azerbaijan Friday to
convey a message to its president, Ilham Aliyev, from Prime Minister
Erdogan. Turkey has previously reassured Azerbaijan that its ties
remain strong, despite Turkey’s new diplomatic relations with Armenia.
Azerbaijan fears the reconciliation process will lead Turkey to reduce
support for Baku’s goal of reclaiming the ethnic Armenian breakaway
region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Ethnic Armenian separatists declared
independence in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1988 with support from Yerevan,
sparking a six-year insurgency that claimed 35,000 lives and left
more than 1 million people homeless.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave. A cease-fire was declared in
1994, but sporadic fighting continues.