Erdogan Hopes Sarkisian Will Visit Turkey
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By Asbarez Staff on Sep 25th
NEW YORK (RFE/RL) – Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed
hope that President Serzh Sarkisian will pay a landmark visit to
Turkey next month and said Ankara’s fence-mending agreements with
Yerevan could be submitted to the Turkish parliament for ratification
before that.
Sarkisian has been invited by his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul,
to watch with him the return match of the two countries’ national
football teams in the Turkish city of Bursa on October 14. The two
presidents’ presence at their first World Cup qualifying played in
Yerevan in September last year gave new impetus to the
Turkish-Armenian rapprochement.
`If the Turkish president can easily go to Armenia to watch a game,
then it should be just as easy and simple for the Armenian president
[to visit Turkey,]’ Turkish media on Thursday quoted Erdogan as saying
in a speech at Princeton University in the United States. `I think
asking for certain conditions to be met to decide to come is not the
right way forward in international politics anymore.’
Sarkisian has repeatedly stated that he will accept Gul’s invitation
only if Turkey takes `real steps’ to establish diplomatic relations
and open its border with Armenia. The August 31 publication of two
relevant draft protocols finalized by Ankara and Yerevan is thought to
have made his visit much more likely.
The trip would come just days after the anticipated signing of the
Turkish-Armenian protocols, most probably in a third country. Various
Turkish sources said last week that the signing ceremony has been
tentatively scheduled for October 11-13.
But Erdogan implied in his speech that the two sides could put pen to
paper on the Western-backed deal even before that. `If we don’t see
prejudice or some domestic political considerations at play, I believe
the preparation for the agreement, which has been initialed between
Turkey and Armenia, could be taken to Parliament to be ratified,’ he
said, according to `Today’s Zaman’ newspaper. `We hope to take those
steps by the 10th or 11th of next month.’
Erdogan did not specify whether his government will seek to push the
documents through Turkey’s Grand National Assembly, in which his
ruling Justice and Development Party has a majority, if Armenia and
Azerbaijan fail to achieve a breakthrough in their peace talks on
Nagorno-Karabakh. Sarkisian and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev
are expected to hold a potentially decisive meeting on October 6.
The Turkish premier reportedly said late last week that the
Turkish-Armenian frontier will not be reopened until `Azerbaijan’s
occupied territories are returned.’ Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard
Nalbandian swiftly criticized the remark, saying that it contradicts
`the letter, spirit and aims’ of the Turkish-Armenian agreements.