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Armenia, Turkey Agree Plan For Establishing Ties

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  • Armenia, Turkey Agree Plan For Establishing Ties

    ARMENIA, TURKEY AGREE PLAN FOR ESTABLISHING TIES
    by Mariam Harutunian

    Agence France Presse
    August 31, 2009 Monday 9:14 PM GMT

    Armenia and Turkey said Monday they had agreed on a plan to establish
    diplomatic ties and re-open their border, seeking to end decades of
    distrust and resentment on both sides.

    The two countries have no diplomatic relations, a closed frontier and
    a long history of hostility rooted in massacres of Armenians under
    the Ottoman Turks during World War I.

    Ankara and Yerevan said they would hold six weeks of domestic
    consultations before signing two protocols on establishing diplomatic
    ties and developing bilateral relations.

    "The political consultations will be completed within six weeks,
    following which the two protocols will be signed and submitted to
    the respective parliaments for ratification," the countries' foreign
    ministries said in a joint statement with mediator Switzerland.

    According to copies of the protocols released by the Armenian foreign
    ministry, the two countries have agreed to re-open their common border
    "within two months" of the deal taking effect.

    The agreement also calls for the creation of a joint commission
    to examine the "historical dimension" of their disagreements,
    "including an impartial scientific examination of the historical
    records and archives."

    The two countries said in April that they had agreed to a road map
    for normalising diplomatic ties after years of enmity.

    Turkey has long refused to establish diplomatic links with Armenia
    over Yerevan's efforts to have World War I-era massacres of Armenians
    by Ottoman Turks recognised as genocide -- a label Turkey strongly
    rejects.

    Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically killed
    between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, Turkey's predecessor,
    was falling apart.

    Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label and says between
    300,000 and 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil
    strife when Armenians took up arms in eastern Anatolia and sided with
    invading Russian troops.

    Turkey also closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
    ally Azerbaijan over Yerevan's backing of ethnic Armenian separatists
    in the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region.

    Rare talks between the two neighbours gathered steam last September
    when Turkish President Abdullah Gul paid a landmark visit to Yerevan
    to watch a World Cup qualifying football match between the countries'
    national teams. It was the first such visit by a Turkish leader.

    Gul invited Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian to attend a rematch
    in Turkey in October. Sarkisian said in July that he would not attend
    unless Ankara took "real steps" at mending ties.

    Washington has backed the reconciliation effort, with President Barack
    Obama calling on Armenia and Turkey to build on fence-mending efforts
    during a visit to Turkey earlier this year.

    Late Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office issued a
    statement saying France encourages Turkey and Armenia to "redouble
    their efforts so they can quickly sign an accord... which will be an
    historic event and contribute to stability in the region."

    But Azerbaijan has demanded that any final deal be linked with the
    withdrawal of Armenian forces from Nagorny Karabakh, which broke from
    Baku's control during a war in the early 1990s.

    Officials there have hinted that energy-rich Azerbaijan would consider
    cutting gas supplies to Turkey if Ankara ignored the Karabakh issue
    in its talks with Armenia.

    The plan could also face domestic opposition in both countries, where
    the issue of the Ottoman-era massacres continues to raise strong
    emotions. One of Armenia's most influential political parties, the
    Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), left the country's
    governing coalition in April in protest over the talks with Ankara.
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