TURKISH PREMIER TO TALK ARMENIA DISPUTE IN RUSSIA
RIA Novosti
16:30 | 04/ 05/ 2009
MOSCOW
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay a brief working
visit to Russia on May 16, the Russian government announced on Monday.
Turkish media said Turkey’s relations with Armenia and the ex-Soviet
republic’s dispute with Ankara’s ally Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh
would dominate the visit to Russia, a mediator in the long-running
feud.
Turkey and Armenia, which have had no diplomatic ties since the Soviet
Union split up in 1991, agreed to a "roadmap" under Swiss mediation
in April in a bid to normalize their relations.
Erdogan, however, was reported to have later reiterated that Turkey
would not open its border with Armenia, closed in 1993 in a show
of support for Azerbaijan, until the Nagorny Karabakh dispute has
been resolved.
Ankara has also said Yerevan should drop its campaign to have the
mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 internationally
recognized as genocide. Armenia says an estimated 1.5 million Armenians
were slaughtered at the end of the Ottoman Empire.
The Russian government said the visit would take place following an
invitation from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Diplomats in Ankara said Erdogan and Putin would also discuss bilateral
trade and cooperation in the energy sphere, including Russia’s bid
in a tender to build a nuclear power plant in Turkey.