Azernews.Az

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian in Washington on Monday that have long been anticipated by the world community, which is intensely watching the process of reconciling the two estranged neighbors. No statements were made in conclusion of the meeting, the first one after the Davos forum in 2008, and the tone of the two leaders’ strongly-worded rhetoric suggests that the discussions were fruitless, analysts say.
The meeting, which took place on the sidelines of an international summit on nuclear security and was attended by the two countries’ foreign ministers, lasted an hour and a half, CNN Turk website reported.
Armenia and Turkey have been at odds for decades. In a bid to end the long-standing hostility, the two governments signed protocols in Zurich in October 2009 to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their borders. However, the documents require parliamentary approval, and Ankara has ruled out normalization with Yerevan until progress is achieved in resolving the conflict between Armenia, which occupies part of Azerbaijani territory, and Azerbaijan, Turkey’s ally.
Sources from the Turkish Foreign Ministry reported that both countries were expected to affirm their commitment to the process of normalizing Ankara-Yerevan relations, the state-run TRT TV channel reported.
The TRT’s Russian service said that one of the important topics of the meeting was the Armenian-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, for which the Turkish prime minister expressed his point of view. Erdogan reiterated that ratification of the Zurich accords requires Armenian withdrawal from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
In a meeting with representatives of the Armenian community in America after talks with the Turkish premier, Sarkisian spoke in the language of claims.
"Our position was and remains the same: Turkey cannot speak with Armenia and Armenians in the language of preconditions, we will simply not allow it," Sarkisian was quoted by Mediamax news agency as saying.
He said that Armenia has no intention to discuss in any format "the fact" of the so-called Ottoman-era "genocide" or pretend to believe as though Turkey may have a positive role in the negotiations on Garabagh settlement.
Prime Minister Erdogan said at the George Mason University in Washington, where he arrived after meeting Sarkisian, that assessing history in the parliaments of countries is unfavorable for Armenia as well.
"We reject the accusations of genocide in relation to the events of 1915 and reject the unfair and unilateral decisions of parliaments. We believe that history should be studied and evaluated by historians, not parliaments. We have indicated willingness to open up our archives and urged other countries to do the same," said Erdogan.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-based Armenian lobby organizations adopted an appeal to President Sarkisian urging him to put pressure on US President Barack Obama to brand the 1915 events as "genocide", CNN Turk reported. The lobbyists also called on Sarkisian to declare that the Turkish-Armenian normalization "has come to a point that it cannot be continued at Turkey’s fault".
Sarkisian and Erdogan are due to hold separate meetings with President Obama on Tuesday.*