Will the President of Turkey come to Yerevan?

PanARMENIAN.Net - During the meeting with the Armenian community in Russia Serge Sargsyan announced that Armenia keeps up to one clear point of view in the issue of establishing relations with Turkey: in the 21st century two neighboring countries may not be separated by closed borders. According to the President of Armenia, the Turkish party suggests creating a commission, which shall study the historical facts. "We are not against such a commission, but only when the borders between two countries are open. Otherwise, it may become a good way of abusing and prolonging the issue for long years," he mentioned. "In the near future I intend to take new measures in my course of establishing relations between Armenia and Turkey. Most probably I will invite the President of Turkey Abdullah Gul to Yerevan to watch the football
match between our countries together," announced Serge Sargsyan. It is worth reminding that the President of Turkey was among the first ones who congratulated Serge Sargsyan with his appointment on the post of the President of Armenia.

However, it is still too early to speak about any approximate date of opening the Armenian-Turkish borders. But the fact that the President of Armenia is open to the dialogue is already good. In fact, the recommendation of the US State Department may be realized in the beginning of the dialogue. But as the Armenian party has always said - there must be no preconditions. The Turkish party has many of these preconditions: the recognition of the Moscow Treaty of 1921, the Karabakh Conflict and the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. As it is known to everyone, the Armenian party has no preconditions. Naturally, Armenia will continue being the guarantor of the safety of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and will achieve the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Turkey must understand that it is
easier to recognize the Genocide than spend millions and blackmail the entire world. And in this issue Ankara is standing on the way of Azerbaijan. One may still understand Baku: in the absence of real allies in the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, she counts on Turkey, as a country which is more or less closer with her views. And as it has already been said more than once, Turkey has indeed become the hostage of Baku, as well as its interests, its energy supplies and nobody knows how long it will still last, but it is rather interesting what Azerbaijan's reaction will be if Abdullah Gul really comes to Yerevan. If the President of Turkey really wants normalization of the relations and gives a positive answer to Sarsyan's invitation, this will be a great break. On the other hand, this kind of invitations are usually given only when there is a preliminary agreement at least on the level of the Foreign Ministries of both countries and
necessarily through the mediation of a third party, which in this case is the USA. Russia does not participate in this dialogue, because she does not control the situation and as it seems does not want the opening of the borders, having all the reasonable fears that this will drive Armenia apart from Russia and the Russian influence.

As for the recognition of the Armenian-Turkish, and also earlier the Soviet-Turkish borders, here things are a bit more complicated. On May 30, 1953 the government of the USSR made an official announcement about the absence of territorial claims towards Turkey, having the Kars region, Erzurum and Surmalin district on mind. The USSR broke down and now the independent Armenia is not the assignee of the Arm.SSR, but of the First Republic of Armenia and consequently, has no responsibilities towards the treaties and agreements of the USSR.

During the hearings in the US Congress Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Daniel Fried announced, "The USA thinks that a part of the problem solution is opening of the Armenian-Turkish borders. The existing status-quo is no good for either of the countries. The USA assists the dialogue and the cooperation between the Armenian and the Turkish people through conferences, meetings and program exchange. Establishment of the relations between Armenia and Turkey is a very sensitive issue. Turkey must put up with the black pages of her history; mass killings and deportations of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire. This is not easy, like it was not easy for the USA when she took her time to recognize the black pages of her history. In her turn Armenia must be ready for the recognition of the borders and not to come up with territorial claims towards Turkey and must suggest constructive approach to the efforts of Turkey," said Fried. The interesting thing in this announcement is that Fried did not mention
anything at all about Turkey's possible participation in the regulations of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

According to the US Charge d´Affaires to Armenia Joseph Pennington, after the presidential elections in Armenia some icebreaking has been noticed between the countries and this may become a very good start for both parties to find a way for compromise. "For reaching certain progress in the two-sided relations the official Yerevan and Ankara must cooperate, and the USA will only assist the establishment of the relations," emphasized Joseph Pennington.