World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
April 8 2010

Turkish Government Hints at Thaw in Stalled Turko-Armenian Peace Talks

BYLINE: Grace Annan

Yesterday, the undersecretary at the Turkish foreign affairs ministry,
Feridun Sinirlioglu, met with Armenian foreign affairs minister Edward
Nalbandian to revive the stalled Turko-Armenian peace talks. The
meeting came one week ahead of the scheduled Armenia-Turkey meeting in
Washington, where the Armenian and Turkish governments are set to take
stock of their peace efforts, with the mediation of U.S. officials.
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hinted at a possible
meeting with Armenian president Serzh Sarkisian at the fringes of an
international summit on nuclear security during 11-12 April in
Washington.

Significance:Started amid great fanfare in October 2009, the peace
talks have come to a halt. The obstacles are complex and manifold; a
key stumbling block remains the scepticism of key decision makers,
especially in Turkey, with regards to the peace process. The peace
protocols signed in October need to be ratified by the Armenian and
Turkish parliaments, something that is very difficult to achieve given
recent events, which added further fuel to the fire (seeTurkey –
Armenia: 18 March 2010:). It is most likely that next week’s meeting
will see Erdogan and Sarkisian pledging continued commitment to the
protocols and urging each other to restrain from harming the fragile
process through further provocation. In Armenia’s case, this means the
delays to the ratification in Turkey and Turkish siding with
Azerbaijan regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave (seeArmenia –
Azerbaijan: 23 March 2010:), and in Turkey’s case, the push by
Armenian lobbyists abroad for the recognition of the mass killings of
Ottoman Armenians in the First World War.