PRESS TV, Iran
Sept 5 2008
‘Yerevan needs to stop genocide cry’
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:55:06 GMT
Turkish opposition leader says Yerevan must stop pushing for
recognition of the Armenian genocide ahead of a visit by President
Abdullah Gul.
"What has Armenia done to change its policy of hostility towards
Turkey over the issue¦ what has it done to withdraw from
Azerbaijani territory? Nothing," Deniz Baykal, the leader of the
Republican People’s Party (CHP), told the Turkish news channel NTV.
"Perhaps he [Gul] could go and pray at the site of the Armenian
genocide and lay a wreath while he is there," added Baykal, repeating
his staunch opposition to the president’s visit to the Armenian
capital.
Gul has been invited by his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan to
attend a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Yerevan on Saturday
afternoon to become the first Turkish president to go to Armenia.
The diplomatic ties between the two countries have long been severed
over the issue of the killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey rejects the ‘genocide’ label and enjoys close relations with
Azerbaijan.
In 1993, Turkey shut its border with Armenia in a show of unity with
Baku, which was then at odds with Yerevan over its
independence-seeking Armenian-majority region of Nagorny Karabakh.
Ankara hopes Gul’s weekend visit, though sharply criticized by Turkish
opposition parties and nationalists, would favor Ankara’s Caucasus
Stability Pact – a proposal that would intensify political and
economic cooperation in the region.
State Minister Mehmet Aydin has noted "The facts that we have do not
support the theory that the visit will resolve all the problems, but
it is not right to assume that nothing will come of it either."