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BABACAN CONGRATULATES NEWLY APPOINTED ARMENIAN COUNTERPART
Today's Zaman
April 21 2008
Turkey
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan has sent a congratulatory
message to newly appointed Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian,
Armenian news portals reported over the weekend.
Nalbandian, Armenia's former ambassador to France, was appointed
as foreign minister recently after former Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian resigned from the post earlier this month. "I am confident
that your experience will be useful for your country and believe that
we will establish a dialogue to achieve the desired goals," Babacan
was quoted as saying by PanArmenian.net in his message to Nalbandian.
The new minister, in an interview with Armenia's Mediamax news agency,
voiced his will for normalizing relations with Turkey without any
preconditions. "The genocide is a dark page of our common history
and together we have to turn this page, and together we must build
a secure future. I want to once again reiterate the readiness of
Armenia to develop relations with Turkey without preconditions and our
commitment to take the necessary steps to that end. Establishment of
lasting peace and stability and wider cooperation in our region will
continue to remain among our priorities," Nalbandian was quoted as
saying by the agency.
Ankara has recognized Yerevan since the former Soviet republic won
independence in 1991, but nevertheless refuses to establish diplomatic
ties because of Armenian efforts to secure international condemnation
of the controversial World War I era killings of Anatolian Armenians
as genocide.
Armenians claim that up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered
in orchestrated killings during the last years of the Ottoman
Empire. Turkey categorically rejects the claims, saying that 300,000
Armenians along with at least as many Turks died in civil strife
which emerged when the Armenians took up arms for independence in
eastern Anatolia and sided with the Russian troops that were invading
Ottoman lands.
In 1993 Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of
solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at war with
Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, dealing a heavy economic
blow to the impoverished nation. Ankara wants Armenia to abandon its
campaign for the recognition of the killings as genocide and make
progress in its dispute with Baku before formal diplomatic relations
can be established.
"The strategic importance of the South Caucasus is not only in its
geographic location and natural riches, but in its position on an
important North-South and East-West axis, which can only be fully
utilized if conflicts are resolved and good-neighborly relations are
established. This will benefit everyone. The Republic of Armenia will
spare no effort to bring that day closer," Nalbandian noted.
Today's Zaman
April 21 2008
Turkey
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan has sent a congratulatory
message to newly appointed Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian,
Armenian news portals reported over the weekend.
Nalbandian, Armenia's former ambassador to France, was appointed
as foreign minister recently after former Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian resigned from the post earlier this month. "I am confident
that your experience will be useful for your country and believe that
we will establish a dialogue to achieve the desired goals," Babacan
was quoted as saying by PanArmenian.net in his message to Nalbandian.
The new minister, in an interview with Armenia's Mediamax news agency,
voiced his will for normalizing relations with Turkey without any
preconditions. "The genocide is a dark page of our common history
and together we have to turn this page, and together we must build
a secure future. I want to once again reiterate the readiness of
Armenia to develop relations with Turkey without preconditions and our
commitment to take the necessary steps to that end. Establishment of
lasting peace and stability and wider cooperation in our region will
continue to remain among our priorities," Nalbandian was quoted as
saying by the agency.
Ankara has recognized Yerevan since the former Soviet republic won
independence in 1991, but nevertheless refuses to establish diplomatic
ties because of Armenian efforts to secure international condemnation
of the controversial World War I era killings of Anatolian Armenians
as genocide.
Armenians claim that up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered
in orchestrated killings during the last years of the Ottoman
Empire. Turkey categorically rejects the claims, saying that 300,000
Armenians along with at least as many Turks died in civil strife
which emerged when the Armenians took up arms for independence in
eastern Anatolia and sided with the Russian troops that were invading
Ottoman lands.
In 1993 Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of
solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at war with
Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, dealing a heavy economic
blow to the impoverished nation. Ankara wants Armenia to abandon its
campaign for the recognition of the killings as genocide and make
progress in its dispute with Baku before formal diplomatic relations
can be established.
"The strategic importance of the South Caucasus is not only in its
geographic location and natural riches, but in its position on an
important North-South and East-West axis, which can only be fully
utilized if conflicts are resolved and good-neighborly relations are
established. This will benefit everyone. The Republic of Armenia will
spare no effort to bring that day closer," Nalbandian noted.