Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ANKARA: Armenian PM Welcomes Turkish Dialogue Request

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ANKARA: Armenian PM Welcomes Turkish Dialogue Request

    ARMENIAN PM WELCOMES TURKISH DIALOGUE REQUEST

    Turkish Press
    April 30 2008

    YEREVAN - Armenia is ready to start dialogue with Turkey on improving
    relations if Ankara does not set preconditions to talks, Armenia's
    new prime minister said Sunday.

    The two neighbors have no diplomatic links after Ankara severed ties
    in protest against Armenian occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region,
    over which Armenia fought Turkey's ally Azerbaijan in a war in the
    early 1990s.

    "I confirm the readiness of the government of Armenia to engage in
    constructive dialogue and establish relations without preconditions,"
    the press office of the Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan said
    he wrote in a letter to Turkey.

    An Armenian-backed administration controls the Nagorno-Karabakh
    region. Armenia and Azerbaijan are still officially at war over the
    mountainous area.

    Last week Turkey's foreign minister said he had sent a letter to
    Armenia calling for dialogue. Armenia is a mainly Christian state
    of around three million on the edge of the Caucasus which hosts a
    pipeline pumping oil to Europe from Asia.

    Armenia also accuses Turkey of genocide during the violence at the
    end of World War I. Turkey denies the accusations and says that both
    Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in the fighting.

    "I assure you that our efforts will be aimed at ensuring peace,
    tolerance and stability in our region," Sarksyan told Turkey in
    the letter.

    Sarksyan took over as prime minister earlier this month. He had
    previously been central bank chief.
Working...
X