Oskanian agree to maintain Turkish-Armenian dialogue
Turkey became one of the first countries to recognize Armenia soon after it became an independent state following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. But diplomatic ties were severed over a territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan and Yerevan’s support for Armenian diaspora efforts to get international recognition for allegations of an Armenian genocide.
Yerevan’s refusal to ratify border agreements with Turkey, which Ankara sees indicative of Armenian territorial claims on part of Turkey’s eastern region, is also a source of the problem.
Earlier this year, Turkish, Armenian and Azeri foreign ministers met in Madrid on the sidelines of a NATO meeting and discussed ways to start a dialogue process to resolve outstanding issues.
Media reports following the Madrid meeting suggested that Turkey was considering opening a border gate with Armenia, closed for ten years.
In the New York meeting, the two ministers agreed to maintain the dialogue process and found that there was will on both sides to achieve improvement in ties, diplomatic sources told the Anatolia news agency in New York.
The two ministers discussed bilateral problems and also raised the issue of Armenian occupation in the Azeri territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey, in this regard, expects a Turkish-Armenian-Azeri meeting following presidential elections scheduled for mid-October in Azerbaijan.
Turkish officials said that stability in the Caucasus was in Turkey’s interests and added that opening the border gate with Armenia had been discussed in New York as part of efforts to heal bilateral relations.
An air corridor between Turkey and Armenia is already open and Turkey does not impose any embargo on land-locked Armenia, Turkish sources also said.
Turkey has so far said restoring diplomatic ties with Yerevan depended on three conditions: Armenia’s withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan’s stopping to support Armenian diaspora efforts to get the allegations of genocide recognized and its ratifying border agreements with Turkey.
