IN AN EFFORT TO REPAIR BILATERAL RELATIONS, TURKISH OFFICIALS TO MEET ARMENIAN DELEGATION

TopNews.In
April 13 2010
India

It has been reported that Turkish officials are to meet in Washington
with an Armenian delegation in an effort to repair bilateral relations.

It was also reported that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
is to meet his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan on the sidelines
of a nuclear conference in Washington.

The official Anadolu news agency reported on Monday that Erdogan,
prior to his departure to Washington, dispatched Feridun Sinirlioglu,
an undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Armenia to
discuss bilateral ties.

Claims of genocide during the Ottoman Empire complicated Turkish
relations with Armenia. Recent ties were strained further over issues
regarding the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area of dispute between
Azerbaijan and Armenia.

It was also noted by some media reports that 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. (With Inputs from Agencies)