Armenia, Turkey won't discuss the deepest source of their enmity

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia and Turkey, bitter foes for a century, took a step toward reconciliation Monday by announcing they would launch final talks aimed at establishing diplomatic ties. But they won't discuss the deepest source of their enmity: the World War I-era massacres of Armenians under Ottoman rule, the Associated Press reports.



Both sides said in a joint statement they expected the talks to take six weeks and to end with an agreement setting up and developing ties. The two countries, whose shared border is closed, are U.S. allies and came under American and European pressure to move toward peace. The parliaments of the two countries must ratify a deal on diplomatic normalization, and in Turkey, nationalist sentiment and suspicion about Armenian intentions is particularly high, the article says.



The author also reminds of the lingering Karabakh conflict.



Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Monday that Turkey would ''guard'' Azerbaijan's interest during its reconciliation with Armenia, saying in comments broadcast by NTV television that ''our aim is to establish stability in the Caucasus.''



Turkey, however, clearly seeks to enhance its growing image as a regional statesman and a coveted ally of world powers in a strategic and often unstable region. The rapprochement with Armenia coincides with efforts to resolve a long-running feud with Turkey's Kurdish minority - issues that are vital to Turkish efforts to earn membership in the European Union, the article says.



One of the biggest disputes between the neighboring countries is over the World War I-era massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians, the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, contending the toll has been inflated and that the casualties were victims of civil war.



Armenian President Serge Sargsyan indicated the dispute would not be a deal-breaker between the two neighbors.



''It's important that historical justice be restored. It's important that our nations are able to establish normal relations,'' Sarkisian said in an interview published Monday by the BBC Russian service. ''But we do not regard a recognition of genocide as a preliminary condition for establishing relations.''



Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Armenia's independence in 1991, but the two countries never established diplomatic relations and their joint border has been closed since 1993 over the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh.