WILL ROBERT KOCHARYAN AND REJEP ERDOGAN MEET?

PanARMENIAN.Net - It is worth reminding that the information about the possible direct negotiations between Rejep Erdogan and Robert Kocharyan was preceded by a letter correspondence between the two leaders. In April, the Turkish leader sent a letter to the Armenian president where he offered to create a mixed group of historians who could jointly investigate archive documents to determine whether the events of 1915 were a planned genocide. In his reply letter, Robert Kocharyan came up with an alternative suggestion. The President of Armenia underlined that it would be more logical if the political leaders took the responsibility of searching for a way out from the current situation could start a dialogue without preconditions for normalizing the relations between Yerevan and Ankara. According to the publication of "Zaman" newspaper, the Turkish Prime Minister intends to agree with Kocharyan's proposal.

It is quite obvious that the initiatives of the two leaders are not correlated with each other. We can even say that they contradict each other. If the meeting between Kocharyan and Erdogan takes place, the subject of discussion will probably be based on the Armenian proposal and not the Turkish one, since the President of Armenia actually denied the idea to study the events of 1915 on a scientific-historical level. Anyway, it seems that initiating recommencement of the dialogue, Ankara primarily planned for a contact on a political level and the proposal to create a commission of historians was just a way to start a conversation, because it was not hard to foresee the negative reaction of Yerevan to such a proposal. Erdogan is quite pleased, because Kocharyan replied not with a rough refusal but with a courteous invitation to carry on negotiations. The press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Namik Tan qualified the letter of Armenian President as positive. The Turks valued the restraint reply of Kocharyan who did not mention the word "genocide" in his letter and underlined the readiness of Yerevan to start a dialogue without any precedent conditions.

Being inclined to accept the proposal of Armenian party, Ankara suggests a "mixed formula": Erdogan hinted at the readiness to develop political relations and to study history at the same time. "We do not say that we should leave politics to historians. We shall of course do politics", Erdogan stated. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Abdullah Gul also assumes certain changes. He said, that if Yerevan gives an adequate reply to the initiative of the Prime Minister, "there will be a certain development of events".

Turkish press resources already discuss the possible places of the meeting between Kocharyan and Erdogan. The two most likely variants are Moscow, where both of the leaders will participate in the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the victory over fascism and Warsaw, where the summit of the leaders of the EC member-states will start on May 15. According to Turkish journalists the second variant is more probable. Meanwhile, it should be noted that the political leadership of Armenia has not received any suggestions concerning meetings. However, no one excludes the possibility of such meetings. "Zaman" newspaper underlines, that no concrete arrangements have been made concerning the time and place of negotiations. It is still a question of intension. In this case it can be asked why did the Turkish diplomats organize information flow about the possible meeting between Kocharyan and Erdogan? Most likely, the Turkish foreign ministry wanted to check the reaction of the public to the idea of direct dialogue on a high level.