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Turkey Slams Armenia For Halting Deal To Improve Ties

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  • Turkey Slams Armenia For Halting Deal To Improve Ties

    TURKEY SLAMS ARMENIA FOR HALTING DEAL TO IMPROVE TIES

    Zee News, India
    Feb 17 2015

    Last Updated: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 - 01:35

    Istanbul: Turkey lashed out Tuesday at Armenian President Serzh
    Sarkisian for his decision to withdraw from parliament a landmark
    deal aimed at repairing relations between the two nations.

    "We don`t think this is the right approach by Armenia, it is an
    erroneous and baseless step," said Turkish foreign ministry spokesman
    Tanju Bilgic in Ankara, quoted by Turkish media.

    Sarkisian said on Monday he was recalling the protocols both countries
    signed in 2009 from parliament due to the "absence of political will"
    on the Turkish side.

    The deal was brokered under US, French and Russian supervision in
    Zurich but the accords have since languished without ratification in
    both nations` parliaments.

    Sarkisian`s decision appears to have for now buried the deal,
    which would have led to the opening up of the border between the
    two neighbours.

    Relations between Turkey and Armenia remain blocked as Ankara refuses
    to cede to Yerevan`s demands that it acknowledge the mass killing of
    Armenians by Ottoman forces in World War I was a genocide.

    Sarkisian`s decision to recall the accords comes at a particularly
    critical moment, as Armenians prepare to mark the 100th anniversary
    of the start of the massacres on April 24.

    Armenians have angrily accused Turkey of trying to overshadow
    the ceremonies planned in Yerevan by advancing its advancing its
    commemorations of the 1915 Ottoman resistance against the Allied
    landing in Gallipoli to the same day.

    Bilgic in turn accused Armenia of using the anniversary year as a
    pretext for renewing accusations against Turkey over the killings.

    Yerevan says around 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered in a
    deliberate campaign against them.

    Turkey disputes that figure. Last year, President Recep Tayyip
    Erdogan, then premier, offered condolences for the mass killings for
    the first time.

    But hopes that the gesture would lead to a breakthrough in relations
    between the two countries have so far come to nothing.

    http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/turkey-slams-armenia-for-halting-deal-to-improve-ties_1548278.html

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