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ANKARA: No Breakthrough In Secret Turkish-Armenian Talks

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  • ANKARA: No Breakthrough In Secret Turkish-Armenian Talks

    NO BREAKTHROUGH IN SECRET TURKISH-ARMENIAN TALKS

    The New Anatolian, Turkey
    May 31 2006

    Secret talks between Turkey and Armenia, launched after Prime Minister
    Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote a letter to Armenian President Robert
    Kocharian, have failed to make any headway coming out of their third
    round, said media reports yesterday.

    A part of the third session of secret talks was held on the sidelines
    of the Turkey-European Union Troika meeting in Vienna, Austria last
    March. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul closely followed the meetings
    with Armenian officials that were kept secret from the media,
    CNN-Turk reported.

    Sources say that the Armenian response reached Ankara early this
    month to Turkey's suggestion for the establishment of two committees
    to discuss mutual relations wasn't welcomed, and the answer "to the
    Turkish suggestions that they received was watered down."

    The Turkish side had proposed the establishment of two committees to
    simultaneously hold talks on political issues and the Armenian genocide
    allegations. In response, Yerevan rejected the Turkish suggestions,
    stating that holding discussions about the "genocide" would make the
    controversial issue debatable. It underlined that scholars can debate
    the issue in conferences. Nevertheless Armenia did request the revival
    of political talks between the two countries.

    Following Yerevan's objection to the establishment of the two
    committees, including one comprised of historians from both countries
    to study the Armenian genocide claims, Ankara is now preparing for
    the fourth round of secret talks.

    Foreign Ministry officials underlined that continued debates over
    the genocide claims have "poisoned" Turkey's relations with other
    countries. Ankara will continue to exert effort to find a middle
    ground and to solve its problems with Yerevan, they added.
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