Sunday, September 7, 2008 - 17:40
AFP News Briefs ListTurkish, Armenian ministers to meet later this month: Yerevan
The foreign ministers of estranged neighbours Armenia and Turkey will meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly at the end of September, Armenia said Sunday.
The announcement of the meeting later this month between Armenia's Eduard Nalbandian and Turkey's Ali Babacan came the day after a landmark first ever visit by a Turkish leader to Yerevan.
"The ministers have agreed to a meeting at the end of September in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly," a statement from the foreign ministry said.
"The Armenian and Turkish ministers have expressed their willingness to normalise bilateral relations. They have underlined that all necessary measures should be taken towards that end," the statement added.
The move follows a meeting in Yerevan on Saturday between Turkey's President Abdullah Gul his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian, who pledged to overcome decades of enmity between their two nations.
Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic ties and their border has been closed for more than a decade. Their relationship has been strained by deep differences over the World War I massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of Turkey.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people were systematically killed by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1917 as their empire fell apart -- a claim supported by several other countries.
Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000-500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian troops.
Images
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan attends a meeting bilateral meeting in a hotel of the center of Avignon, southern France, as part of the informal European Foreign ministers summit on Septmeber 5, 2008. The foreign ministers of estranged neighbours Armenia and Turkey will meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly at the end of September, Armenia said Sunday.
© 2007 AFP Michel Gangne
