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TURKISH MINISTER'S VISIT RAISES HOPES OF THAW WITH ARMENIA
Reuters
Dec 12 2013
Dec 12 (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made Turkey's
first high-level visit to Armenia in nearly five years on Thursday,
raising the prospect of a revival in peace efforts between the
historical rivals which stalled in 2010.
Muslim Turkey and Christian Armenia signed accords in October 2009
to establish diplomatic relations and open their land border, trying
to revive relations frozen by the legacy of the World War One mass
killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
The U.S.-backed efforts to bury a century of hostility became
deadlocked six months later, with each side accusing the other of
trying to rewrite the texts and set new conditions, and neither
country's parliament approved the deal.
"I hope my Yerevan visit will contribute to efforts for a comprehensive
peace and economic stability in the BSEC region and the Caucasus
in particular," Davutoglu, who traveled to Yerevan for a Black Sea
Economic Cooperation (BSEC) group meeting, wrote on Twitter.
Underscoring persistent tension, young activists from Armenian
opposition parties protested, prompting Davutoglu to use a back door
to enter the central Yerevan hotel where the BSEC meeting was held.
Demonstrators chanted "shame" and waved posters saying: "Stop the
occupation of Armenian land" and "Stop the blockade".
Davutoglu later said his meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian on the sidelines of the gathering was "sincere and honest,"
but that it would be wrong to think that problems could be solved in
a single meeting.
"Our priority is to build our dialogue on a sound psychological basis
and continue on that basis. In this framework all kind of creative
ideas could come on the agenda, the countries already know their
perspective," he told Turkish reporters in Yerevan.
The last visit by a Turkish minister was in April 2009, six months
before the protocols were signed, when Deputy Prime Minister Ali
Babacan attended a BSEC meeting in Yerevan.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
Azerbaijan during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, when ethnic Armenians
backed by Armenia threw off Azeri rule with the collapse of the
Soviet Union.
Nalbandian said before meeting Davutoglu that "relations between
Armenia and Turkey should be settled without any pre-conditions,"
meaning Armenia does not want Turkey to tie a bilateral rapprochement
to a resolution of the ongoing dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkish critics of the 2009 deal between Ankara and Yerevan had said it
was a betrayal of fellow Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, while Armenian
opponents said the accords betrayed Armenian efforts to have the
massacres during World War One recognised internationally as genocide.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning
in 1915 but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that it
amounted to genocide - a term used by some Western historians and
foreign parliaments. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz, Seda Sezer in
Ankara and Hasmik Lazarian in Yerevan; Writing by Daren Butler and
Margarita Antidze)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/12/12/turkey-armenia-idINL6N0JR2WV20131212
Reuters
Dec 12 2013
Dec 12 (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made Turkey's
first high-level visit to Armenia in nearly five years on Thursday,
raising the prospect of a revival in peace efforts between the
historical rivals which stalled in 2010.
Muslim Turkey and Christian Armenia signed accords in October 2009
to establish diplomatic relations and open their land border, trying
to revive relations frozen by the legacy of the World War One mass
killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
The U.S.-backed efforts to bury a century of hostility became
deadlocked six months later, with each side accusing the other of
trying to rewrite the texts and set new conditions, and neither
country's parliament approved the deal.
"I hope my Yerevan visit will contribute to efforts for a comprehensive
peace and economic stability in the BSEC region and the Caucasus
in particular," Davutoglu, who traveled to Yerevan for a Black Sea
Economic Cooperation (BSEC) group meeting, wrote on Twitter.
Underscoring persistent tension, young activists from Armenian
opposition parties protested, prompting Davutoglu to use a back door
to enter the central Yerevan hotel where the BSEC meeting was held.
Demonstrators chanted "shame" and waved posters saying: "Stop the
occupation of Armenian land" and "Stop the blockade".
Davutoglu later said his meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian on the sidelines of the gathering was "sincere and honest,"
but that it would be wrong to think that problems could be solved in
a single meeting.
"Our priority is to build our dialogue on a sound psychological basis
and continue on that basis. In this framework all kind of creative
ideas could come on the agenda, the countries already know their
perspective," he told Turkish reporters in Yerevan.
The last visit by a Turkish minister was in April 2009, six months
before the protocols were signed, when Deputy Prime Minister Ali
Babacan attended a BSEC meeting in Yerevan.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
Azerbaijan during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, when ethnic Armenians
backed by Armenia threw off Azeri rule with the collapse of the
Soviet Union.
Nalbandian said before meeting Davutoglu that "relations between
Armenia and Turkey should be settled without any pre-conditions,"
meaning Armenia does not want Turkey to tie a bilateral rapprochement
to a resolution of the ongoing dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkish critics of the 2009 deal between Ankara and Yerevan had said it
was a betrayal of fellow Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, while Armenian
opponents said the accords betrayed Armenian efforts to have the
massacres during World War One recognised internationally as genocide.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning
in 1915 but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that it
amounted to genocide - a term used by some Western historians and
foreign parliaments. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz, Seda Sezer in
Ankara and Hasmik Lazarian in Yerevan; Writing by Daren Butler and
Margarita Antidze)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/12/12/turkey-armenia-idINL6N0JR2WV20131212