TURKEY EAGER TO HAVE FRIENDLY TIES WITH ALL NEIGHBORS
Today, Azerbaijan
June 6 2006
State Minister Beshir Atalay said on Monday that the government’s
policy of seeking to avoid problems with neighboring countries
included Armenia.
“As the government, our policy is, first of all, the elimination
of all problems with our neighbors,” Atalay told the Anatolia news
agency in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, where he was attending
a summit aimed at fostering cooperation in the Black Sea region.
Stating that Turkey has so far settled many of its disputes with
neighboring Syria and Greece within a reasonable framework, Atalay
said: “There are problems with Armenia due to well-known reasons. We
expect Armenia to act reasonably and wish as a neighbor to normalize
our relations with Armenia.”
The border gate between the two countries has been closed for more
than a decade. Turkey closed the gate and severed diplomatic relations
with Armenia after Armenian troops occupied the Azerbaijani territory
of Nagorno Karabakh.
Ankara now says normalization of ties depends on Armenian withdrawal
from Nagorno Karabakh as well as on progress in the resolution of
a series of bilateral disagreements, including Armenia putting an
end to its support of Armenian diaspora efforts to win international
recognition for an alleged genocide of Armenians during the latter
days of the Ottoman Empire.
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