Turkey Going to Establish Diplomatic Relations with Armenia?

/PanARMENIAN. Net/ Turkey intends to take action on the proposal of Armenian President Robert Kocharian on establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the two states. This is the opinion journalist Barcyn Inanc expressed in an article posted on CNNTurk website. To remind, in 2005 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to Robert Kocharian with a proposal to form a commission of historians to deal with the Genocide issue. In response the RA President stated that a diplomatic commission should be formed first of all. In his article Inanc remarked that informal negotiations are being held between Armenia and Turkey in Vienna. “Turkey has rejected establishment of diplomatic relations with Armenia so far. It said Armenia should settle the conflict with Azerbaijan first. Now Turkey is ready to forget this term and wants to form a joint diplomatic commission. This will certainly harm the Turkish-Azeri relations but Ankara is presently concerned over Armenians’ success in issue of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. All the more, till 2015 that is till the 100th anniversary of the Genocide, Armenians are expected to make a greater advance. The decision not to make the Armenian genocide a precondition for Turkey’s accession to the EU was adopted at a critical juncture.

However, when in Yerevan on September 30 French President Jacques Chirac again referred to the Armenian Genocide recognition as a precondition. October 12 the French parliament will consider the bill criminalizing the Genocide denial. All this forces Turkey to extenuate its position on Armenia and accept the idea of a diplomatic commission formation. This thought is confirmed by the fact that hopes for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement have slackened off. Armenians and Azeris though came closer to an agreement but fail to reach a final decision. The Kocharian-Aliyev meetings yield no fruit,” the article says. Inanc also remarks that “such approach will make Armenians think that Turkey retreats and will give them the possibility to be more exacting at the bargaining table,” reported Yerkir.