Turkey, Armenia agree on road map to normalize ties

[Harold Schiffman]

Turkey, Armenia agree on road map to normalize ties

The tentative agreement, which must be ratified by both nations'
legislatures, creates a framework for bilateral cooperation.
By Simon Montlake
posted April 23, 2009 at 8:28 am EST


Turkey and Armenia have tentatively agreed to normalize diplomatic
ties amid fierce rancor over the massacre of more than a million
Armenians nearly a century ago. Swiss-mediated talks yielded an accord
that would, if confirmed by lawmakers, create a road map for bilateral
cooperation between the two antagonistic neighbors. Armenia has been
lobbying Western nations to back its claim that the Ottoman Empire
committed genocide against its people during World War I. Turkey has
long denied that the killings amounted to genocide. On a recent visit
to Turkey, US President Barack Obama called on the country to come to
terms with its past and reopen its sealed border with Armenia. During
his term as a senator, he joined calls for the US government to
recognize the genocide. But on his recent trip, he carefully avoided
using the term.

Turkey's government said Wednesday that the talks had achieved
"tangible progress and mutual understanding," Bloomberg reports. Last
September, President Abdullah Gul became the first Turkish head of
state to visit Armenia. To resolve the dispute over the massacres,
Turkey has proposed opening the archives of the Ottoman Empire, the
forerunner to the modern nation-state, to foreign historians.

The Foreign Ministry said Turkey and Armenia "have agreed on a
comprehensive framework for the normalization of their bilateral
relations in a mutually satisfactory manner," according to the
statement on its Web site. "In this context, a road map has been
identified."

Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports that a joint statement by the
foreign ministries of Switzerland, Turkey, and Armenia did not refer
to the mass killings that have poisoned relations between the two
neighbors, but spoke more broadly of strengthening "peace, stability,
and security" in the region. Turkish and Armenian envoys have held
closed-door talks in Switzerland for two years, according to Novosti.

The Washington Post reports that Mr. Obama met the leaders of Turkey
and Armenia during his visit earlier this month to Istanbul and was
supportive of the diplomatic overtures between the two neighbors.
Nationalists in both countries may try to scuttle the accord, however,
which must be ratified by the two legislatures. The road map would set
up joint committees to handle economic affairs as well as historical
issues, principally the massacres that began in 1915.

The announcement came just two days before what Armenians will mark as
the 94th anniversary of the start of the massacres of hundreds of
thousands of ethnic Armenians in Turkey during the demise of the
Ottoman Empire. President Obama is expected to give an annual White
House statement on the killings on Friday, and had promised during his
campaign to describe them as "genocide." In recent years, US
presidents have resisted using such language, which Turkey rejects.

Underscoring US interest in the peace talks, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton praised the bold reconciliation efforts between Turkey
and Armenia, says the Associated Press. The Obama administration is
keen to strengthen ties with Turkey, which it sees as a moderate
Muslim partner in the Middle East. The US has also had a diplomatic
hand in the talks between the two as Turkey wants US commitment to
resolve a parallel row between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Turkey backs Azerbaijan's claim to the disputed region of
Nagorno-Karabakh, where many ethnic Armenians live and which lies
within Azerbaijan's borders. Azerbaijan fought with Armenia over
control of the region during 1988-1994, amid the breakup of the Soviet
Union, before a Russian-mediated cease-fire.

Reporting from the Turkish side of the heavily militarized border,
Reuters identifies economic and strategic factors behind the détente
between the two countries. The European Union has said a diplomatic
pact should help Turkey's bid to join the union. As well as easing
tensions in the Caucasus, the talks are also significant for the
future of oil and gas supplies from the region. Azerbaijan has the
option of sending gas via pipelines through Turkey to Europe or
channeling it through Russia.

Despite the concerns, tentative cross-border contacts have generated
fragile optimism among many in eastern Turkey, where livelihoods are
largely made from farming and where per capita income is around a
tenth of levels in affluent western Turkey.

"We want peace. I went to Armenia and I was received very well. We
show them hospitality when they come here. I think it would be good
for our economy and trade if the border opens," said Ali Guvensoy,
chairman of the Kars Chamber of Commerce.

That optimism is shared in landlocked Armenia. A reopening of the
border would provide a huge boost to the economy, having already lost
out on lucrative energy transit deals and trade with eastern Turkey.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0423/p99s01-duts.html

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