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Agence France Presse
December 6, 2013 Friday 2:23 PM GMT
Turkey FM heading to Armenia
ANKARA, Dec 06 2013
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is heading to Armenia next
week on his first visit since the failure four years ago of efforts to
normalise ties, officials said Friday.
The two countries remain deeply at odds over the mass killings of
Armenians during World War I and the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
Davutoglu's visit will be the first since October 2009 when moves to
open diplomatic ties and reopen the border came to nothing.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically
killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of
modern Turkey, was falling apart.
Turkey says 500,000 died in fighting and of starvation during World
War I and categorically rejects the term genocide.
Ankara had closed the border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
regional ally Azerbaijan in its festering dispute with Yerevan over
Nagorny Karabakh.
The territory is internationally recognised as Azerbaijan's but was
seized by Armenia-backed separatists in a 1990s war that killed 30,000
people.
Davutoglu will be attending a meeting of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation forum in Yerevan on December 12 but it is not known if he
will hold separate bilateral talks with Armenian officials.
He announced the trip after meeting Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe in Kiev on Thursday, Turkish press
reports said.
Davutoglu also met his Azeri counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov and Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the Nagorny-Karabakh issue
which Ankara considers key for a thaw in relations with Yerevan.
>From Armenia, the Turkish minister will visit Greece on December 13
and Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus the following day.
fo-ba/txw/hmn
December 6, 2013 Friday 2:23 PM GMT
Turkey FM heading to Armenia
ANKARA, Dec 06 2013
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is heading to Armenia next
week on his first visit since the failure four years ago of efforts to
normalise ties, officials said Friday.
The two countries remain deeply at odds over the mass killings of
Armenians during World War I and the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
Davutoglu's visit will be the first since October 2009 when moves to
open diplomatic ties and reopen the border came to nothing.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically
killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of
modern Turkey, was falling apart.
Turkey says 500,000 died in fighting and of starvation during World
War I and categorically rejects the term genocide.
Ankara had closed the border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
regional ally Azerbaijan in its festering dispute with Yerevan over
Nagorny Karabakh.
The territory is internationally recognised as Azerbaijan's but was
seized by Armenia-backed separatists in a 1990s war that killed 30,000
people.
Davutoglu will be attending a meeting of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation forum in Yerevan on December 12 but it is not known if he
will hold separate bilateral talks with Armenian officials.
He announced the trip after meeting Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe in Kiev on Thursday, Turkish press
reports said.
Davutoglu also met his Azeri counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov and Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the Nagorny-Karabakh issue
which Ankara considers key for a thaw in relations with Yerevan.
>From Armenia, the Turkish minister will visit Greece on December 13
and Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus the following day.
fo-ba/txw/hmn