TURKEY, ARMENIA MOVE TO BOOST TIES
Aljazeera.net
September 1, 2009 Tuesday
Qatar
Turkey and Armenia are at the beginning of a "long process" of
normalising ties, the Turkish foreign minister has said.
Ahmet Davutoglu’s comments on Tuesday came a day after the feuding
neighbours agreed to establish relations and reopen their border
under a plan to end nearly a century of hostility.
Davutoglu told Turkey’s NTV television that the process would be long,
but that obstacles could be overcome and that the border could be
open by the end of the year.
"If everything goes as planned, if mutual steps are taken, the borders
could be opened around New Year," he said.
Turkey was one of the first countries to recognise Armenia’s
independence in 1991, but the two countries never established
diplomatic relations and their joint border has been closed since 1993.
Warming relations
The statement released by the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministries
on Monday said that the two countries would start consultations to
sign two protocols – one to establish diplomatic ties, the other to
develop relations.
The talks, with continued mediation by Switzerland, are to last
six weeks.
The dispute between the two countries stems from the mass killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the first world war.
Some historians have estimated that 1.5 million Armenians were killed
by Ottoman Turks at the end of the Ottoman empire.
Ankara rejects claims the killings amounted to genocide, saying both
Turks and Armenians were killed in high numbers.
Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Turkey, said that Ankara
was motivated by a desire to play a key diplomatic role in the region.
Possible pitfalls
"Turkey, as you know, wants to be a peacemaker in the region and I
think its occurred very clearly to its government – as well as its
citizens – that you can’t make peace abroad unless you make peace at
home," she said.
"If Turkey wants to convince the region to become peaceful, mutually
constructive and stable, then it has to play its own role in that
by resolving some of its outstanding intractable disputes with its
neighbours and, of course, with its own internal ethnic groups."
But the negotiations still face pitfalls, and will follow months of
inactivity after signs of promise earlier in the year when Barack
Obama, the US president, appealed for reconciliation during a visit
to Turkey.
Despite an agreement that the process should proceed without
preconditions, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister,
has linked it to a resolution of the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh,
an Azeri region that was occupied by Armenian troops.
The Turkish population shares close cultural and linguistic relations
with Azerbaijan, which is pressing Turkey for help in recovering
its land.
Azerbaijan has said it expects Turkey to keep its border with Armenia
closed until the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has been resolved.
Significant progress
Turkish-Armenian ties began to improve after a so-called football
diplomacy campaign last year.
Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president, attended a World Cup qualifying
football match between the two countries in Yerevan, the Armenian
capital.
Serzh Sarkisian, the Armenian president, is due to make a return
trip for a match in October, though he has said he wants significant
progress on the border issue first.
But he has indicated that the dispute over the first world war
mass-killings would not be a deal-breaker.
"It’s important that historical justice be restored. It’s important
that our nations are able to establish normal relations," Sarkisian
said in an interview with the BBC Russian service.
"But we do not regard a recognition of genocide as a preliminary
condition for establishing relations."
The restoring of ties is expected to give Armenia access to Turkish
and European markets.