MORE DETAILS ON ARMENIA-TURKEY SECRET CONTACTS REVEALED
AZG Armenian Daily
23/07/2008
Armenia-Turkey
On July 18 "Hurriet" newspaper stated without any details that
Armenia-Turkey secrtet talks have started in Bern, Switrzerland. Later
the fact was confirmed.
Nevertheless is most interesting are neither the responses nor the
confirmation. The most interesting are the details of the meeting.
Some details were provided by the Turkish New York website
(turkishny.com). This is what they write, "the friendly gestures of
Serge Sarkisian encouraged Turkey, which has had unofficial contacts
with Armenia for almost 10 years. It turns out that Foreign Ministry
Councilor Rtugrul Apakan and his assistant on Caucasus and Central Asia
Unal Zevikoz had two series of meetings with the Armenian delegates
in May and July.
Although Ali Babacan confessed time to time contacts between
Armenia and Turkey, he refused to provide any details. According to
information received, Ankara is aware of Azerbaijan’s opposition in
case Armenia-Turkey contacts become public.
As far as Turkish Daily News came to know, Apakan’s and Zevikoz’s
meetings with the Armenians in Bern were successful in sense of
coming to agreement on the strategy and methods of resolving the
present problems.
It also came out that instead of discussing the establishment of one
commission, the Armenian and Turkish sides discussed the opportunity
of founding four joint commissions, one for the borders, the Genocide,
reparations and Karabakh respectively.
Previous President of Armenia Robert Kocharian denied Recep Tayyip
Erdogan’s proposal to establish a commission of Armenian and Turkish
historians to study the 1915 events. Kocharian insisted that an
intergovernmental, not scientific commission must be established. This
time, according to diplomatic sources, measures are taken to meet
the requirements of both the sides.
Most attention during Apakan’s and Zevikoz’s meetings was paid to
the question of opening the Turkish-Armenian border. It is a long
time since the EU and the USA have started persuading Ankara that
opeing the border with Armenia is the best way to weaken Armenia’s
positions on the Genocide".
In the end turkishny.com mentions Serge Sarkisian’s invitation of
Abdullah Gul to Armenia on September 6 and says about the possibility
of having the third round of talks this year before the possible
meeting in Yerevann