ANKARA IN RENEWED TALKS WITH ARMENIA
United Press International UPI
April 12 2010
Turkish officials are to meet in Washington with an Armenian delegation
in an effort to repair bilateral relations.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to meet his Armenian
counterpart Serzh Sargsyan on the sidelines of a nuclear conference
in Washington.
Erdogan, prior to his departure to Washington, dispatched Feridun
Sinirlioglu, an undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
to Armenia to discuss bilateral ties, the official Anadolu news agency
reports Monday.
Turkish relations with Armenia were complicated by claims of genocide
during the Ottoman Empire. Recent ties were strained further over
issues regarding the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area of dispute
between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Turkey reacted angrily to a series of measures passed in Sweden and
the United States that described the killing of Armenians in World
War I as genocide. The Turkish envoy to Washington was recalled
briefly when a measure narrowly passed March 4 in the U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Leaders from Turkey and Armenia met in October, however, to sign
protocols aimed at restoring bilateral ties following years of
acrimony.
The protocols outline a series of provisions, ranging from a bilateral
denunciation of terrorism to stating a "willingness to chart a
new pattern and course for their relations on the basis of common
interests, goodwill and in pursuit of peace, mutual understanding
and harmony."