Armenian and U.S. presidents discuss Armenian-Turkish process

YEREVAN, October 6, /ARKA/. Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian had a telephone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama while visiting Los Angeles, Sarkisian’s press office said in a statement. President Sarkisian was in Los Angeles in the third leg of his pan-Armenian tour of major Armenian communities to discuss and promote his plans of normalization of relations with Turkey.

A joint statement issued late on August 31 by Turkey and Armenia, together with mediators from Switzerland, said Ankara and Yerevan will conduct six weeks of diplomatic consultations before signing two protocols that establish formal diplomatic ties and help develop bilateral relations.

The statement issued by the Armenian presidential press office said the telephone conversation was initiated by Barack Obama. “During the conversation Obama expressed his support for Armenian president’s efforts directed towards normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations,’ the statement said. It also said that Obama has reconfirmed the United States’ official position that Armenia and Turkey should normalize their relations without preconditions and that it must not be linked with the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.

The statement said Armenian president thanked his U.S. counterpart for his support for the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process and shared his impressions about his pan-Armenian tour.

“The president of Armenia stressed that the concerns of worldwide Armenians over the reconciliation process is normal regarding that Armenians were subjected to genocide by the Ottoman empire which president Obama mentioned in many of his speeches,’ the statement said.

President of Armenia also thanked Barack Obama for the huge mediation work being done by the USA within the frameworks of the OSCE Minsk Group towards peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, emphasizing Armenia’s willingness to move on towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict. The statement quoted Serzh Sarkisian as saying that the decision of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh on their final status through expression of their will is key to finding a long-lasting and peaceful solution to the conflict, as it is spelled out in the Madrid Principles.

Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic ties since Armenia became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for its ally, Azerbaijan, which had a dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic Armenian enclave of Azerbaijan.

There are several sensitive issues complicating the establishment of normal relations between the two countries, particularly, Ankara’s blatant support of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process and Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians in the last years of the Ottoman Empire as a genocide.

The thaw in the strained relations began in 2008 September after Turkish president Abdullah Gul arrived in Armenia, at his counterpart’s invitation, to watch together with Serzh Sargsyan the 2010 World Cup qualifying football game between the two countries’ national teams. During that visit the two presidents discussed prospects for engaging in dialogue and normalization of relations.-0-