Armenia, Turkey agree plan for establishing ties



YEREVAN, Mariam Harutunian - Armenia and Turkey said Monday they had agreed to present their lawmakers with a plan to establish diplomatic ties within six weeks, seeking an end to decades of distrust and resentment on both sides.
The two countries' foreign ministries said in a joint statement that they had agreed to start "internal political consultations" on two protocols: one establishing diplomatic relations and the other developing bilateral ties.



Armenia, Turkey agree plan for establishing ties
"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 statement said.
The Swiss-brokered agreement would provide for the normalisation of ties "within a reasonable timeframe", it said, adding that "the normalisation of bilateral relations will contribute to regional peace and stability."
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.
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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Monday, August 31st 2009
Mariam Harutunian
           


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