Xinhua General News Service, China
April 8, 2010 Thursday 11:10 AM EST

Turkey reaffirms goal to normalize relations with Armenia

ANKARA April 8

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Thursday reaffirmed Turkey’s
goal to normalize ties with Armenia despite the stalled reconciliation
process.

Turkey and Armenia have had a vision since they signed protocols last
October to normalize ties and open borders and this vision never
changed, Davutoglu told a joint press conference with visiting Greek
Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas here.

"We believe we’ll normalize our relations with Armenia thanks to our
vision," he told reporters.

He said a senior Turkish diplomat held fruitful talks on the peace
move in Armenia this week and would travel to Azerbaijan on Friday to
negotiate the issue.

The special envoy arrived in Armenia on Wednesday with a letter from
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan, in which Erdogan called on Sargsyan to fulfill
obligations in the normalization bid, Turkish media reported.

The two presidents are expected to meet on the sidelines of a nuclear
summit in Washington due in mid-April.

The peace move between Turkey and Armenia has made slow progress since
normalization protocols were signed last October. It suffered a blow
after a U.S. congressional panel and the Swedish parliament last month
passed resolutions that recognize Armenia’s "genocide" claim.

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic or economic ties and are bogged
down in a long-time row over the killings of Armenians during the
World War I, which Armenia brands as a genocide. Turkey strongly
denies that and has argued the Armenians were victims of widespread
chaos and governmental breakdown as the Ottoman Empire collapsed
before modern Turkey was founded in 1923.