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Turkey's Top Diplomat Meets President Of Armenia With 4 Questions

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  • Turkey's Top Diplomat Meets President Of Armenia With 4 Questions

    TURKEY'S TOP DIPLOMAT MEETS PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA WITH 4 QUESTIONS

    HULIQ
    April 7 2010
    SC

    Turkey this morning has sent one of its top diplomats to Armenia for a
    meeting with the foreing minster and the president of its northeastern
    neighbor for developing the bilateral relations severely damaged
    95 years ago by the Armenian genocide, which Turkey denies. Foreign
    Ministry's undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu was just received with
    the Armenian FM Edward Nalbandyan and the president of the country
    Serzh Sargsyan.

    The official sources say that Sinirlioglu was sent to Armenia to
    discuss a range of issues with the Armenian side about the bilateral
    relations. Unofficial sources say Erdogan has sent his Foreing
    Ministry's undersecretary to convince the the president of Armenia
    to have a meeting on the sidelines of Obama's nuclear summit held in
    Washington D.C. next week.

    CNN Turk and Hurriyet report that Sinirlioglu is in Armenia wanting
    to discuss four important points all related to the Armenian Turkish
    relations. Judging from them April will be a very busy month and we
    may see some more diplomatic traffic as well as possible parliamentary
    ratification of the protocols signed in Zurich last year to improve
    relations, open the borders for trade and open embassies.

    Disagreements between Armenia and Turkey

    First topic in Sinirlioglu agenda is to discuss the disagreements that
    have come forward in the relations between Armenia and Turkey. Armenia
    says there should not be any conditions for ratification of the
    protocols signed to improve relations last year. Turkey, siding with
    Azerbaijan (with which it shares cultural and ethnic common ties)
    says it wants to see some progress on the Nagorno Karabakh issue
    to improve relations with Armenia. US, Russia and Europe insist on
    moving forward with the protocol ratification unconditionally. For
    some reason, Turkey asks unilateral concessions only from Armenia
    and not from Azerbaijan, who has dragged Turkish foreign policy since
    the beginning of the conflict 22 years ago.

    Commitments to protocols

    The second issue on Sinirlioglu's agenda is to ensure the authorities
    in Armenia that Turkey is committed to the protocols to normalize
    relations with Armenia. So far this commitment has only been in words
    and no direct steps have been taken to ratify the protocols in the
    Turkish parliament. Instead, recently Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoghan
    threatened to expel Armenian immigrants that illegally work in Turkey.

    Expelling illegal workers is the right of each country, but when they
    threaten to do so for a political reason, that at least is not ethical.

    Steps need to be taken

    Thus Sinirlioglu is in Armenia to discuss what steps can both
    countries take to move the normalization process forward. Armenian
    FM, in a released statement has told the Turkish envoy that the
    country's aproach to normalization is in line with the international
    expectations. According to News.am the officials from the office of
    the president of Armenia say that the president Sargsyan has told
    Sinirlioglu that his country is committed to the protocols and expects
    practical steps from Turkey toward ratification of these protocols
    in the Turkish parliament.

    Possibility of Arranging a Meeting

    This meeting is already confirmed according to Turkish sources,
    however negotiations about this issue are still in process and it's
    hard to confirm at this point. Yet the meeting is very likely.

    Armenian News.am referring to Turkish Yeni Safak reports that the
    president of Armenia and Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold
    a meeting on the sidelines of April 12-13 summit on Global Nuclear
    Security. If the meeting goes successfully we may see protocols
    ratified and the border opened before April 24 when the Armenians
    around the world commemorate the 95th sad anniversary of the Armenian
    Genocide. Nearly 1.5 million Armenians systematically were annihilated
    and deported during the last days of the Ottoman Empire.

    The prime minister of Turkey Mr. Erdogan, according to some observers,
    is trying to save his face as he was not granted an audience with
    president Obama during the nuclear summit next week. The message
    for Turkey is clear: the signed protocols have no precondition and
    they need to be ratified and normal relations started. Turkey does
    not want to upset Azerbaijan and drags the issue. EU says to Turkey:
    if you want to be an EU member get more civilized, open the borders
    and allow free trade. No close borders in the 21st century.

    Nearly 23 parliaments in the world have called the events that took
    in 1915 as genocide. Recently Swedish parliament and the US House
    subcommittee did the same. President Obama has promised to call
    the events as genocide in his traditional April 24 message to the
    Armenian powerful community in the U.S. Last year he used the Armenian
    equivalent of the term.
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