Turkish and Armenian leader meet in Kiev
Hurriyet Daily News
Thursday, February 25, 2010
ISTANBUL- Daily News with wires
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu and Armenian President
Serge Sarkisian met in Kiev on Thursday.
The Turkish foreign minister told reporters after the meeting that he
had had the opportunity to talk to the Armenian president about the
Turkish-Armenian relationship normalization process, anddevelopments
in the Caucasus.
"We reviewed the Turkish -Armenian normalization relationship in its
entirity with open hearts today including our anxieties and the
obstacles we face," DavutoÄ?lu said. "We spoke about Armenian-
Azerbaijan relations and the activities of the Minsk Group as related
to the Karabakh issue," he said.
"I also had the opportunity to tell Mr. Sarkisian about Turkey’s
vision for the region," he said.
DavutoÄ?lu said this is the firt meeting between him and
Sarkisian since a controversial decision from the Armenian
Constitutional Courtslowing to a grindthe progress made after the two
countries signed protocols to restore diplomatic ties.
The Armenian parliament Thursday made it easy for Yerevan to scrap
protocols signed with Turkey by passing amendments that will allow
President Serge Sarkisian to suspend ratification and withdraw from
previously signed international agreements. The amendments were passed
by a vote of 70-4. The move comes amid growing frustration in Armenia
over Turkey’s Parliament’s failure to ratify the protocols signed in
October.
The signing of the deals was hailed internationally as a key step in
overcoming decades of enmity stemming from World War I-era killings of
Armenians under the late days of the Ottoman Empire.
But ratification by both countries’ parliaments stalled as the two
sides have traded accusations of trying to modify the deal.
Ankara has accused Yerevan of trying to set new conditions after
Armenia’s Constitutional Court said the protocols could not contradict
Yerevan’s official position that the Armenian killings constituted "
or its part, is furious over Ankara’s insistence that normalizing
Turkish-Armenian ties depends on progress in resolving the conflict
between Armenia and Turkish ally Azerbaijan over the disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
Azerbaijan after ethnic Armenian forces wrested Nagorno-Karabakh from
Baku’s control in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.
The conflict remains unresolved despite years of international
mediation.