Erdogan and Kocharian to meet up in Warsaw

Tuesday, May 10 2005 @ 06:55 PM Central Daylight Time

Turkey is trying to isolate the Armenian Diaspora from Armenia on the issue of Genocide recognition on economic grounds. It tried once without success with the previous president Levon Ter-Petrossian. Will it succeed now? Will Armenia's economic condition now force president Robert Kocharian to capitulate? It is Robert Kocharian's last term in office, he will not run again. Will he or his party take the chance? Will the coalition survive?

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, in order to mark "Europe Day," gave a lunch to [...] the Ambassadors from EU countries [...]. At the lunch, Gul noted that the upcoming European Council summit in Warsaw will witness a meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian President Robert Kocharian.

Answering a question in regards to Turkish-Armenian relations from Polish Ambassador Grzegorz Michalski, Gul made these comments on the Armenian claims of genocide: "We are aware that the Armenian question is poisoning Turkish-EU relations." This was interpreted as being a message to the Polish Parliament, which recently passed a decision to recognize the Armenian claims.

Gul continued his comments: "We are all for having good relations with our neighbors. Messages are being sent that we should open our borders with Armenia. But why should we do that before seeing a response from them? The Armenian diaspora in particular does not want our two countries to develop relations. Their approach is absolutely incorrect. Despite everything though, we are trying to look at it all positively. Erdogan and Kocharian shook hands today (yesterday) in Moscow. We expect them to meet in Warsaw."

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears on:
http://www.turks.us/article.php?story=20050510185538951&mode=print
Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...].The bold emphasis is mine.