Wall Street Journal: deal on Armenian-Turkish border opening may be signed April 16

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey and Armenia could soon announce a deal aimed at reopening their border and restoring relations, according to diplomats, a move that could help stabilize a region that's increasingly important as a transit route for oil and gas, the Wall Street Journal reported quoting diplomatic sources in Brussels.



The timing of the deal is being choreographed with the schedule of U.S. President Barack Obama, who visits Turkey next week, these people say.



The Turkish and Armenian governments have agreed on terms to open formal talks in three areas: opening and fixing borders, restoring diplomatic relations and setting up commissions to look at disputes, including one on the tense history between the two nations, according to the diplomats, all of whom declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the talks.



Normalizing relations between Turkey and Armenia would "create a new and positive dynamic" in relations across the region, "as well as in developing the economic and transport links we have been pursuing ever since the collapse of the former Soviet Union," said U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew J. Bryza, the State Department's point man in the Caucasus.



Mr. Bryza travels to Azerbaijan Thursday to discuss how a Turkish-Armenian agreement could help revive efforts for a settlement on Nagorno Karabakh.



Analysts say Turkey's government hopes progress in reviving its relations with Armenia could prompt the White House not to recognize the killings as Genocide and to block the Congressional resolution.



If the U.S. proceeds with the genocide resolution, "I cannot imagine any Turkish government opening the Armenian border," said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think tank.



A Senior Turkish foreign-policy official said the U.S. is trying to facilitate the agreement with Armenia. Turkish and Armenian officials declined to comment on the status of their talks.



Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said on Turkish television last week he would discuss Nagorno Karabakh, the Armenian Genocide and relations between Russia and Georgia with the U.S. President, among other issues.



Mr. Obama's decision to make Turkey the final, two-day stop on his European tour has been welcomed in Ankara as a sign of the country's strategic importance.



One date under discussion for signing the deal with Armenia, diplomats say, is April 16. But Mr. Unluhisarcikli said he believes Turkey and Armenia won't be ready to sign the deal before April 24, and Turkey instead will "signal" its commitment to reopen the borders in the hope that will be enough for Washington.