Turkey, Armenia to discuss ties in Washington

Associated Press Online

April 9, 2010 Friday 9:20 PM GMT
By DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writer

Turkey hopes that a rare face-to-face meeting between its prime
minister and Armenia’s president in Washington next week could revive
stalled efforts to normalize relations between the longtime
adversaries.

Turkey’s ambassador to Washington Namik Tan told The Associated Press
Friday that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan nd Armenian
President Serge Sarkisian would discuss the stalled talks on the
sidelines of the nuclear security summit hosted by President Barack
Obama Monday and Tuesday.

Tan returned to Washington Tuesday after being recalled to Ankara last
month in protest at a step by the U.S. Congress toward declaring the
Ottoman-era killing of Armenians a genocide. The Foreign Affairs
Committee of the House of Representative’s passed a resolution
declaring the killings genocide, but it is unclear whether the full
House will vote on it.

Tan said that he came back after assurances by the Obama
administration that it would oppose the congressional action and not
itself label the killings genocide.

"We received some satisfactory messages," Tan said. "I hope there will
be a new chapter."

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed
by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies
that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been
inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

The Obama administration must decide whether to label the killings a
genocide in an annual statement this month on the day marking
remembrance of the killing. It has opposed the resolution because it
could upset the historic talks between Turkey and Armenia. The two
countries signed agreements for reconciliation in October, but the
deals still need to be approved by their parliaments. The agreements
call for the establishment of diplomatic relations and the reopening
of their border.

The agreement, if ratified, would reopen the border Turkey closed in
1993 to protest Armenia’s war with neighboring Azerbaijan. The Turkish
parliament has held up ratification of the deal as Turkey presses for
a settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan over a region in
Azerbaijan that has been under Armenian control since the war.

Erdogan is also expected to meet with Obama while in Washington at a
time other sensitive issues are bubbling up. Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly canceled a trip to the nuclear summit. His
government said the trip was called off because he believed that
Turkey and other governments attending planned to make an issue of
Israel’s nuclear program.

Tan denied this.

"We don’t have any such thing in our agenda," he said.

Erdogan is also likely to come under pressure from Obama to vote in
favor of new sanctions against Iran at the United Nation’s security
council. Turkey is currently one of the rotating members of the
council, but has opposed sanctions against an important neighbor.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress