Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ANKARA: Turkish President Gul To Pay A Historic Visit To Armenia On

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ANKARA: Turkish President Gul To Pay A Historic Visit To Armenia On

    TURKISH PRESIDENT GUL TO PAY A HISTORIC VISIT TO ARMENIA ON SATURDAY

    Hurriyet
    Sept 4 2008
    Turkey

    President Abdullah Gul will on Saturday become the first Turkish head
    of state to visit Armenia, his office said, taking an important step
    to restart diplomatic relations between two neighboring countries.

    Gul will go to Yerevan to attend a football match between the two
    countries, which do not have diplomatic relations

    Armenia's President Serge Sarkisian invited Gul last month to attend
    the qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup finals to mark "a new
    symbolic start in the countries' relations". Turkish diplomats
    and security officials have been in Yerevan this week making final
    preparations.

    "A visit around this match can create a new climate of friendship
    in the region," the Turkish presidency said in a statement posted on
    its website. "It is with this in mind that the president has accepted
    the invitation.

    "This match could lift the obstacles blocking the coming together
    of two peoples who share a common history and can create a new
    foundation," it said.

    The Turkish presidency said it hoped the visit means "an opportunity
    for a better mutual understanding."

    Gul will arrive in Yerevan two hours before the match and go directly
    to the office of Sargsyan. The meeting of two presidents is expected
    to last for one hour.

    Gul is expected to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute and Turkey's
    proposal for establishing a Caucasus alliance with Sargsyan. If they
    do, this would be the first time that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is
    on the agenda of a bilateral meeting.

    Turkish delegation will leave Yerevan as soon as the match ends.

    Turkey is among the first countries that recognized Armenia when it
    declared its independency. However there is no diplomatic relations
    between two countries, as Armenia presses the international community
    to admit the so-called "genocide" claims instead of accepting Turkey's
    call to investigate the allegations, and its invasion of 20 percent
    of Azerbaijani territory despite U.N. Security Council resolutions
    on the issue.

    ARMENIA WELCOMED

    Sarkisian earlier welcomed a Turkish proposal for a new forum in
    the volatile Caucasus region after meeting a senior Turkish envoy to
    prepare the visit.

    "Armenia has always welcomed and welcomes all efforts directed at
    the strengthening of confidence, stability and security, and at
    deepening cooperation in the region," Sarkisian said in a statement
    after meeting Gul's special envoy Unal Cevikoz.

    He added that Guls special envoy Unal Cevikoz's visit "raises the
    possibility of talks to settle mutual relations" between the two
    countries.

    A warming period had started between two neighboring countries when
    the two presidents exchanged letters after Sargsyan's election
    victory. Gul's visit raised hopes that the two major problems,
    Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia's genocide claims, could be solved
    through dialogue.

    In 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a tentative
    first step towards resolving the thorny genocide issue by mooting
    that a joint commission of historians launch an investigation and
    publish their conclusions.

    The proposal was rejected by Yerevan. Turkey hopes the establishment
    of such a commission would enlight the 1915 incidents.

    Armenia, with the backing of the Diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
    of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. Turkey
    rejects the claims, saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least
    as many Turks died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took
    up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X