Agence France Presse
Friday 1:23 PM GMT
Turkey says will respond if new Armenian PM wants 'new page'
Ankara,
Turkey on Friday said it was ready to consider any offer by new
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for a "new page" in relations
after the protest leader said he was prepared to open diplomatic ties
without preconditions.
Ankara and Yerevan have no diplomatic ties and the border between the
two countries is shut, with the relationship shadowed by the mass
killings of Ottoman Armenians in World War I which Armenia considers a
genocide.
Pashinyan swept to power this week after veteran leader Serzh
Sarkisian renounced his plan to be prime minister following 10 years
as president in the face of bitter protests.
The new premier later said that "we are keeping with our position and
we are ready to establish relations (with Turkey) without conditions."
"Let's see first," Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told
reporters in Ankara on Friday.
"If Armenia gives up its hostile attitude which it has had for several
years, its attitude towards Turkey's territorial integrity and
borders, if it is giving up all its wrong attitudes... and it wants to
open a new page, we will give the response looking at the details
relating to this."
"We are going to increase friends, we are going to reduce enemies,"
Yildirim added.
- 'Committed to genocide recognition' -
Turkey vehemently rejects that the massacres, imprisonment and forced
deportation of Armenians from 1915 -- which Yerevan says left 1.5
million dead -- constituted a genocide.
The issue has so far stymied efforts to forge relations, with tensions
only increasing around the 100th anniversary of what Turkey terms the
"1915 events" in 2015.
Sarkisian in March formally ditched 2009 agreements that would have
normalised relations with Turkey which were thrashed out under the
aegis of Russia, France and the US but never ratified by either
parliament.
Even if Turkey and Armenia found a way to establish ties, Ankara would
have to placate its ally Azerbaijan which remains wary of any warming
between Turks and Armenians.
Baku has repeatedly threatened to retake by force the Azerbaijani
region of Nagorny Karabakh which is controlled by Armenian separatists
after the war in the early 1990s.
Pashinyan said earlier this week it was Turkey who was imposing
"illogical" conditions.
"It is illogical to make conditions referring to a third country
(Azerbaijan) when you want to establish relations," he said in
Stepanakert, the main town of Nagorny Karabakh which is not recognised
by any state including Armenia.
He emphasised that Armenia "remains committed to international
recognition of the Armenian genocide."
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