Turkey says it wants to normalise relations with neighbouring Armenia

22/04/2008

ANKARA, Turkey -- Foreign Minister Ali Babacan says Turkey is ready to normalise relations with neighbouring Armenia. At a joint press conference Monday (April 21st) with visiting Austrian counterpart Ursula Plassnik in Ankara, he said, "We ... have sent a message to the new government of this country in which we noted that we are open for dialogue." He also supported a fast settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which he described as "one of the critical obstacles to peace and stability in the region". Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations, and their common border has been closed for the past 15 years, due in part to allegations of a WWI-era genocide of more than a million Armenians. (RIA Novosti, ITAR-TASS, AP, Reuters, Hurriyet - 21/04/08)