• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Armenia, Turkey reaffirm commitment to improve ties

RIA Novosti

08/05/2009 11:41 YEREVAN, May 8 (RIA Novosti) - The presidents of Armenia and Turkey agreed at talks in Prague to try to rebuild relations within a reasonable timeframe and without any preconditions, the Armenian leader's press office said on Friday.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Turkish leader Abdullah Gul met in Prague on Thursday as part of efforts to tackle their long-running dispute over Nagorny Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian region located within the borders of Turkey's ally Azerbaijan.

"The presidents of Armenia and Turkey gave a positive assessment to their Prague meeting, where they agreed to stick to existing understandings and continue efforts to improve bilateral relations without any preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe," the press office said.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for Azerbaijan following a bloody conflict over Nagorny Karabakh between the two ex-Soviet Caucasus republics. Turkey earlier refused to open the border until the dispute has been resolved. Ankara has also demanded Yerevan drop its campaign to have the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 internationally recognized as genocide.

This was the presidents' second meeting and came after Gul's visit to Armenia last fall.

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. However, they agreed to a "roadmap" to normalize their relations under Swiss mediation in April.

Sargsyan also met with Azerbaijani Presidents Ilham Aliyev on Thursday in Prague, agreeing on the basic principles of a settlement of the Nagorny Karabakh issue.

Sargsyan and Aliyev were in Prague to attend a EU Eastern Partnership summit designed to offer political and economic aid to former Soviet republics and ease their energy dependence on Russia.

Both leaders also had separate meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington recently. Clinton urged them to resolve the Nagorny Karabakh dispute.

Nagorny Karabakh and ties with Armenia will also dominate Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Russia, a mediator in the feud, on May 16.