Istanbul, 24 Jan. (AKI) – Armenia’s deputy foreign minister Arman Kirakosian said on Wednesday that his country is prepared to establish diplomatic ties with Turkey without any pre-conditions. Kirakosian made the announcement after visiting the parent of murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. The journalist who edited a bilingual newspaper, Agos was shot dead on Friday. A 17-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the murder.
‘Hrant Dink fought for freedom of expression and improvement in Armenian-Turkish relationsh. Those [Turks]) who attend his funeral sharing the sorrow with us, and this was very impressive”, Kirakosian said, referring to the tens of thousands of people who paid homage to the slain journalist before his funeral on Tuesday.
Turkey was one of the first countries to recognise Armenia when it declared independence from the former Soviet Union. However since then relations between the two neighbours have been shaky.
Armenians both in their country and abroad have demanded that Turkey recognise that the estimated 1.5 million Armenians who died under Ottoman rule at the beginning of the 20th Century where the victims of genocide.
Turkish law prohibits any mention of the genocide, and several prominent journalists and authors, including Dink, who have referred to it have been charged with “insulting Turkishness.”
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