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Sat, Feb 11 2012
Turkey and Armenia to sign agreement on diplomatic ties on October 10
US president Barack Obama and Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia will meet on October 10 to sign an agreement on establishing diplomatic relations and reopening their mutual border.
The agreement will be subject to ratification by the respective parliaments in Ankara and Yerevan.
The restoration of relations is being seen as a significant step forward after years of icy relations, first because of deeply differing perspectives on the World War 1 mass deaths of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire which Yerevan and its allies call the Armenian Genocide, and more recently, the 1993 closure of the Turkish-Armenian border by Ankara in solidarity with Azerbaijan, which was at war with Armenian-backed separatists in its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
April 2009 saw Ankara and Yerevan agree on a road map for normalisation of relations.
On October 14 2009, Turkey plays Armenia in a football World Cup qualifying match, and Armenian president Serzh Sarksyan has been invited to to watch the game with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul as part of the process to normalise bilateral relations. The invitation is a reciprocal gesture for an earlier attendance by Gul at an equivalent match in Armenia.
At the September 24-25 G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US president Barack Obama held brief talks on the sidelines of the event, during which Obama said that the US appreciated the recent developments between Turkey and Armenia.
The European Union remains fully supportive of Armenia’s and Turkey’s efforts to normalise their relations, Peter Semneby, the EU’s special representative to the South Caucasus, said at a meeting with Armenian president Serzh Sarkisian on September 25.
On September 1, EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana said in a statement: "I commend the courage and vision of both sides to move forward with this historic process…I hope the two protocols can be signed, ratified, and implemented in the near term".
The agreement will be subject to ratification by the respective parliaments in Ankara and Yerevan.
The restoration of relations is being seen as a significant step forward after years of icy relations, first because of deeply differing perspectives on the World War 1 mass deaths of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire which Yerevan and its allies call the Armenian Genocide, and more recently, the 1993 closure of the Turkish-Armenian border by Ankara in solidarity with Azerbaijan, which was at war with Armenian-backed separatists in its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
April 2009 saw Ankara and Yerevan agree on a road map for normalisation of relations.
On October 14 2009, Turkey plays Armenia in a football World Cup qualifying match, and Armenian president Serzh Sarksyan has been invited to to watch the game with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul as part of the process to normalise bilateral relations. The invitation is a reciprocal gesture for an earlier attendance by Gul at an equivalent match in Armenia.
At the September 24-25 G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US president Barack Obama held brief talks on the sidelines of the event, during which Obama said that the US appreciated the recent developments between Turkey and Armenia.
The European Union remains fully supportive of Armenia’s and Turkey’s efforts to normalise their relations, Peter Semneby, the EU’s special representative to the South Caucasus, said at a meeting with Armenian president Serzh Sarkisian on September 25.
On September 1, EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana said in a statement: "I commend the courage and vision of both sides to move forward with this historic process…I hope the two protocols can be signed, ratified, and implemented in the near term".
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Nobody asks to compromise with Turkey: your call ,the situation still remains CHAOTIC AND COMPLEX SO FAR AS GEOPOLITICS IS CONCERNEd.
soccer diplomacy will solve no problem
Georgia,Armenia,Oseia,Russia,Iran,NagornoCarabagh,
the System is most midly put unstable.
Geopolitics? Chaotic? Complex? Who cares?! Call it whatever you want! There's one point, one decision... a decision that ultimitaley the president of Armenia is making and evidently he's not on the track to making the best decision for his people, if we can even call them say "his."
As far as pressure...the only pressure anyone has ever felt was Turkey and that was to accept a wrongdoing. The Armenian president is under no pressure and no obligation to do anything with Turkey.
He sings = We (he) loses
Fair enough, the Genocide occured
and there is nopthing in world that can deny the fact, no matter how deep you dig your head in the sand. IF the goverment actually
ruling Armenia is corrupt or not i can't say;i can say one thing
for sure that it is pressured by major geopolitical changes occuring in the area. GEOPOLITICS IS NOT NAATIONAL POLITICS IT IS FAR MORE CHAOTIC AND COMPLEX.
For 94 years the Armenian people have been searching for justice from the Turks, for 94 years they have been grieving and mourning for the loss of their 1.5 million ancestors. For 94 years, they have been waiting for something to put their pain to rest. Now some self-proclaimed president, whom the Armenians were against for to begin with, comes and spits on 94 years of history, spits on the faces off all the people who have rallied for the genocide to be recognized year after year for 94 years, spits on history and its rightful ending for what? FOR [...]
Read the full comment WHAT?!
...and all Armenians know that the corrupt government of Armenia and its political leaders are not going to turn down the "president's" wishes because it is the corrupt hand the feeds its corrupt leaders.
That only leaves me with this questions: what is this "self-proclaimed president" getting out of the deal? How much is enough to turn your back on YOUR OWN PEOPLE AND 94 YEARS OF HISTORY? WHAT?!
And as for Mr. Kirlikovali's comments, there are more than enough facts to even prove to an ignorant and blind man that the genocide did indeed occur. From an outsider looking in, this so-called resolution seems peaceful and long overdue; however, for the Armenian people, they, we, I am still hurting. So before anybody tries to prove their point of what they think is "politically fair" maybe you should look at reality, maybe you should look at its people, and not just POLITICS.
Epaminondas
The Armenian holocaust or genocide
the Great Calamnity as called by the Armenians happened in april 1915. in 1915 Kemal was in Gallipoli as a general,in 1920 he was PM in 1923 he became President
of the Turkish Rebublic.
Turkey was not born in 1923 it existed before as an ottman nation same people, the revolution of the Young Turks under Attaturk
does not justify the austrich-like denial by the turks, there was no genocide committed. Year 1 for Turkey was definetly not in 1923 with or without uncle [...]
Read the full comment Sam's aproval,with or without soccer diplomacy.
I agree entirely with Jon Mills.
Mind you, the 1916 "massacre" of Armenians by the then Ottoman Turkish Army (i.e. Ataturk didn't do it) should be fully internationally recognised by now. It is a "blot on Turkey's escutcheon", but Keman Ataturk's national revival from 1922 onwards should have put this one to rest. Unfortunately it didn't. Time to do so now, maybe.....
As long as Armenia continues military occupation of a neighboring country (Azerbaijan) and keeps a million Azeris away from their homes in blatant violation of international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, I don't see how an opening of the borders between Turkey and Armenia can be achieved.
And as long as Armenia continues waging campaigns of defamation of another neighbor (Turkey) based on an alleged but never court-proven genocide, totally ignoring the other side of the story, coveting that neighbor’s lands, and failing to respect its sovereignty, diplomatic relations cannot be established between Turkey and [...]
Read the full comment Armenia.
Armenian Diaspora can shout, scream, deceive, attack, intimidate, and terrorize all they want. At the end of the day, it will be Armenia’s return to acting neighborly and peacefully which will determine Turkey-Armenia relations-- not to mention Armenia’s future, if not survival.
Who would have believed such a thing could happen! It just shows that with good will, hard work, and common sense on both sides, even the unthinkable is possible.