Inviting Gul to Armenia would be unbelievable progress, Bryza says

[robertik1]

http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=26469

PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. Deputy Assistant of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Matthew Bryza said that inviting Turkish President Gul to Armenia would be unbelievable progress.

The Armenian President announced his intention to invite Abdullah Gul to Yerevan for a soccer match between the Armenian and Turkish national teams.

“I know President Sargsyan well and I think that his positions are somehow different from positions of his predecessor. I have an impression that Sargsyan and Aliyev are closer that Kocharian and Aliyev were. Both Presidents demonstrated a pragmatic approach and each was ready to listen to the opponent,” he said.

The U.S. diplomat voiced hope that a framework agreement on Nagorno Karabakh will be signed till the yearend, RFE/RL reports.

[Armenian]

Re: Inviting Gul to Armenia would be unbelievable progress, Bryza says

Don't believe the hype, it ain't gonna happen... Serzh Sargsyan is a brilliant man and his political team in Yerevan is dynamic, capable and powerful.

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Karabakh but not Genocide key problem
in Armenia-Turkey relations, Markedonov says

In early 1990-ies Armenia was ready to normalize relations. However, the process was uncoordinated, according to a Russian expert. “When the Karabakh war broke out Turkey closed the border with Armenia, thus nullifying all possibilities of reconciliation. Fearing that Armenian forces can enter Nakhijevan, Ankara has taken up the policy of late President Turgut Ozal, who said that Turkey is responsible for the Ottoman heritage,” head of the interethnic relations department at the institute of political and military analysis Sergei Markedonov said in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net. “True, there are politicians in Turkey who wish to normalize relations with Armenia but the strong Azeri lobby hampers the process. I should also mention that the key problem is Nagorno Karabakh but not recognition of the Armenian Genocide,” he said.

Source: http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=26213

Turkish diplomat: “We have three main demands from Armenia”

Ankara. Mayis Alizadeh-APA. “One of the problems with Armenia is that Armenia doesn’t recognize territorial integrity of our country. Armenia claimed the territory of Turkey in its declaration of independence in 1991. Although Kars treatment signed in 1920 is in force today. Kars treatment defined the border lines and Armenians should recognize it”, Omar Lutem, retired ambassador and chief of the Armenian studies office of the Eurasian Strategic Research Center told APA Turkish bureau. Touching upon the US Assistant Secretary Daniel Fried’s call on Armenia to recognize Turkey’s borders, the former diplomat said it was very important step. “Armenia pays no heed to the Turkey’s demand for a long time. Now US high-ranking officials raise this issue. I believe Armenia will be forced to listen to it”. Responding the question about the US and Europe’s regular calls on Turkey to open the borders with Armenia and their current call on Armenia to make step, Lutem said: “US makes efforts to solve the Armenian-Turkish issue for a long time and to achieve long-term peace in the Caucasus. It is not a new policy. Daniel Fried’s address shows that Americans will take more interest in this issue in future. It shows that the West will increase pressure on Armenia in the near future. Turkish diplomacy put the issue of recognition of the Turkey’s territorial integrity on agenda during all discussions related to Armenia and runs Armenia into difficulties. They know well our efforts made over the past 17 years. Fried made very important statement at the Congress”. The former ambassador said Turkey had 3 main problems with Armenia: “Recognition of Turkey’s territorial integrity, giving up the false “genocide” claims and solution of Karabakh problem. We mean the liberation of 7 regions nearby Nagorno Karabakh and the solution of Nagorno Karabakh problem within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. We will never change our demands”.

Source: http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=50895

US urges Armenia to recognize Turkish border

The United States for the first time publicly called on Armenia to formally recognize its border with Turkey as part of proposed measures for reconciliation between the two conflicting neighbors. "Armenia should acknowledge the existing border with Turkey and respond constructively to efforts that Turkey may make," Dan Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on recent developments in the Caucasus.Also in the written text of his speech at the panel, Fried said, "Armenia must be ready to... disavow any claim on the territory of modern Turkey."A top problem between Ankara and Yerevan is Armenia's insistent calls for the recognition of World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman empire as genocide, reported Turkishdailynews. Turkey recognizes Armenia, but has refused to set up diplomatic relations with it and keeps their mutual land border closed in response to Armenia's ongoing occupation of Nagorny-Karabakh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan, and some Azeri lands.Armenia and U.S. Armenians accuse Turkey of subjecting its northeastern neighbor to an economic blockade.

Turkish diplomats say that Armenian efforts for international genocide recognition is a prelude to a larger list of demands, including compensation and even "return of lands."Armenia's constitution does not explicitly recognize the country's border with Turkey, and many Armenians and the Armenian diaspora view part of eastern Anatolia as traditional Armenian lands.Fried's remarks were important in the sense that it was the United States' first public call for Armenia to respect Turkey's territorial integrity as a prelude to better relations.The U.S. official also called on Turkey "to come to terms with a dark chapter in its history.""Reconciliation will require political will on both sides, and does require dealing with the sensitive and painful issues, including the issue of the mass killings and forced exile of up to one-and-a-half million Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey needs to come to terms with this history," Fried said.

He also reiterated a call for Turkey to open the land border with Armenia, saying both sides would greatly benefit from such reconciliation.Pro-Armenian lawmakers insistently asked Fried why the United States does not officially recognize last century's Armenian killings in the Ottoman empire as genocide."We don't use the term because we do not think that the use of that term would contribute to a reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey, nor would it contribute to Turkey's examination of the dark spots in its own history," he replied.A genocide resolution came close to passage at the U.S. House of Representatives last fall, and only strong Turkish warnings that such a move destroy the relationship with America and President George W. Bush's administration's focused efforts caused it to be shelved.But analysts here warn that Turkey almost certainly will face the same problem in Congress next year. Making things worse for Turkey, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama strongly supports the Armenian position.

Source: http://news.trend.az/index.shtml?sho...228300&lang=EN

Genocide Recognition ‘Still On Armenia Foreign Policy Agenda’

Armenia will continue to seek international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide despite its readiness to agree to the creation of a Turkish-Armenian commission of historians that would study the highly sensitive subject, Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian said on Friday. The idea of setting up such a commission was floated by Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a 2005 letter to then Armenian President Robert Kocharian. Erdogan said its members should jointly determine whether the mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted a genocide. Kocharian effectively rejected the idea by making a counterproposal to set up a Turkish-Armenian intergovernmental body that would deal with this and other issues of mutual concern.

In an apparent policy change, his successor, Serzh Sarkisian, indicated this week that Yerevan is now “not against” the Turkish proposal. But he made clear that the commission of historians can be set up only if Turkey agrees to unconditionally normalize relations with Armenia. In Nalbandian’s words, this does not mean that Armenia will no longer encourage and endorse efforts by the worldwide Armenian Diaspora to have foreign governments and parliaments recognize the slaughter of more than one million Ottoman Armenians as genocide. “The genocide issue remains on our agenda,” he said. Turkey has cited Yerevan’s support for the genocide recognition campaign as one of the reasons why it keeps its border with Armenia closed and refuses to establish diplomatic relations with the latter. Ankara maintains that the 1915-1918 mass killings occurred on a much smaller scale and were not part of a premeditated government effort to exterminate the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian minority. “Armenia has repeatedly stated and continues to state that we are ready to establish relations with Turkey without any preconditions,” said Nalbandian. “We are also ready to discuss all issues of interest to the two countries after the establishment of diplomatic relations and opening of the border.”

Nalbandian spoke at a joint news conference with Switzerland’s visiting Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey. Switzerland is one of nearly two dozen nations that have officially recognized the Armenian massacres as genocide. The Swiss federal parliament adopted a relevant resolution in December 2003, two months after the Turkish government angrily called off Calmy-Rey’s planned visit to Ankara in protest against a similar document passed by the Swiss canton of Vaud. The visit eventually took place in March 2005, with Calmy-Rey publicly urging Turkey to “conduct an in-depth historical research of its own past, especially when the question is so painful.” The Swiss minister said on Friday that her country stands ready to mediate a Turkish-Armenian rapprochement. “Switzerland is always ready to play the role of a facilitator if it is asked to by the parties,” she said.

Source: http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeni...D51B8510F9.ASP