TURKISH, ARMENIAN LEADERS TO MEET IN BID TO REVIVE PEACE EFFORTS
Agence France Presse
April 7 2010
Ankara
Turkey and Armenia agreed Wednesday that their leaders would meet
next week in a bid to revive stalled reconciliation efforts between
the two long-estranged neighbours, the Turkish foreign ministry said.
The meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian — to take place on the sidelines
of a nuclear security summit in Washington on April 12-13 — was
agreed in talks a Turkish envoy held in Yerevan earlier in the day,
the ministry said in a statement.
During the talks, the sides "confirmed mutually their commitment to
the (normalisation) process and their understanding that, despite
the difficulties, this window of opportunity should not be missed,"
it said.
Erdogan sent Turkey’s top diplomat to Yerevan to discuss steps to
resolve the impasse on a fragile deal the two countries signed in
October to end decades of hostility, establish diplomatic relations
and open their border.
The deal — comprised of two protocols which need parliamentary
ratification in both countries to take effect — has been snagged by
disagreements over its terms, with both sides accusing each other of
lacking true commitment to reconciliation.
The Turkish envoy — foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun
Sinirlioglu — held talks with Sarkisian and his Foreign Minister
Eduard Nalbandian, conveying a proposal that Erdogan and Sarkisian
meet in Washington, Armenia’s presidency said.
An Armenian official had told AFP earlier that Yerevan was considering
the request.
"Sarkisian said (during the meeting) that Armenia expects Turkey to
take practical steps to guarantee decisive progress in the process
of normalising relations, without preconditions," Sarkisian’s office
said in a statement.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Paris, Erdogan said he had
sent a letter to the Armenian president through his envoy underlining
Ankara’s commitment to see the accord to fruition.
"We will always show our loyalty to the signatures that we put down
(under the deal). It is out of the question for us to take a step
back unless there is an extraordinary situation," he said.
"I hope (the reconciliation process) will end positively."
Earlier, a Turkish foreign ministry official who requested anonymity
told AFP that Sinirlioglu would "reassert Turkey’s commitment to the
(reconciliation) process, but will also convey our concerns."
Ankara is irked by a January ruling of Armenia’s constitutional court
which cleared the deal but said it could not contradict Yerevan’s
official line that Armenians were victim of genocide under the Ottoman
Empire — a label Turkey fiercely rejects.
Yerevan, for its part, has protested Ankara’s position that the Turkish
parliament is unlikely to ratify the accord without progress in the
Nagorny Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a close
Turkish ally.
The peace process has been marred also by resolutions adopted last
month by a US House of Representatives committee and the Swedish
parliament that both branded the massacres of Armenians as genocide,
infuriating Ankara.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in deportations
and orchestrated killings during World War I.
Turkey counters that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as
many Turks perished in civil strife when Armenians rose up against
their Ottoman rulers and sided with Russian forces invading the
crumbling empire.