PAKISTAN MEETING MAY HAMPER BABACAN’S ARMENIA VISIT PLANS
Today’s Zaman
March 18 2009
Turkey
An obstacle to a planned visit by Foreign Minister Ali Babacan to
Yerevan for a foreign ministerial meeting of Black Sea countries
is another landmark meeting on Pakistan — with which Turkey shares
special relations — that will be held in Japan on the same days.
In early March, Armenia rescheduled the foreign ministerial meeting
of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC),
apparently as a goodwill gesture to ensure that Babacan would be
among the participants.
Armenian authorities moved the date of the meeting from the previously
announced April 29 to April 16. The shift is significant because April
29 is only a few days after April 24, which Armenians claim marks
the beginning of a genocide campaign against Anatolian Armenians in
the early 20th century. April 24 is also the day when US presidents
traditionally release a statement to commemorate the Armenian killings.
However, a donors conference aimed at bringing stability to Pakistan
will be held in Tokyo on April 17. Babacan is eager to participate
in the conference on Pakistan, a frontline US ally in the campaign
against the Taliban and al-Qaeda extremists that has been wracked
by growing violence and economic instability, due to the importance
attached to the maintenance of stability in this country.
Currently, the scheduling of the two meetings in Yerevan and
Tokyo seems to hinder Babacan’s participation in both of the
meetings. Nonetheless, diplomatic sources didn’t exclude his
participation in either, saying the minister would make his final
decision "according to the situation" in the last week before the
meetings.
Although Ankara has a high opinion of BSEC and wants to revitalize
it as an influential regional consultation mechanism, Babacan’s
participation in the group’s next meeting in Yerevan apparently will
still depend on Armenia’s commitment to the ongoing rapprochement
process and on the progress of closed-door talks with Armenia.