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Turkish president pays landmark visit to Armenia
AFP ^ | September 06, 2008 | Nicolas Cheviron

Posted on 09/06/2008 6:04:41 PM PDT by george76

The presidents of Armenia and Turkey pledged Saturday to overcome decades of enmity between their two nations during the first visit to Yerevan by a Turkish head of state.

Abdullah Gul held talks with Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian after which the two agreed there was now the "political will" to improve relations frozen for decades by lingering bitterness over 1915-1917 massacres.

Gul's visit was hailed by French and EU President Nicolas Sarkozy as "courageous and historic" at a time when the Caucasus region is in turmoil following the conflict in Armenia's northern neighbour Georgia.

The two countries -- which have no diplomatic relations -- have waged an international diplomatic battle over Yerevan's efforts to have the 1915-1917 massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians recognised as genocide.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people were killed between 1915 and 1917 in orchestrated massacres during World War I as the Ottoman Empire fell apart -- a claim supported by several other countries.

Sevak Sahakian, a hotel worker in Yerevan said: "Everyone knows about it and people are happy because they hope better ties with Turkey will improve daily life. But people aren't enthusiastic because they don't trust the Turks."

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia since the former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: armenia; geopolitics; geopoltics; georgia; gul; islam; mohammedanism; russia; sarkisyan; turkey; wot; yerevan

1 posted on 09/06/2008 6:04:41 PM PDT by george76
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To: M. Espinola; kronos77; rmlew; SJackson; SunkenCiv; forkinsocket; Candor7; Fred Nerks; LucyT

2 posted on 09/06/2008 6:06:30 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76
Caucasian unity is a threat to Russia as regional toughie.
3 posted on 09/06/2008 6:17:26 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: george76

Perhaps they realize that they have a common enemy to the north.


4 posted on 09/06/2008 6:22:58 PM PDT by dr_who
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To: george76

Armenia needs to accept that old Armenia is gone and Turkey needs ethnic Armenians to unite politically with secular muslim Turks so that Turkey can embrace Europe instead of relapsing into an islamic state. Of course, I guess Turkey’s current government is made up of more conservative islamic elements. Just a theory, anyway.


5 posted on 09/06/2008 6:30:32 PM PDT by dr_who
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To: dr_who
Armenia has embraced Russia and made public statements hailing the Russians for their bravery. Either the Turks are warning them or more likely seeking an olive branch for Russia. Our weak response has left them feeling we are no longer able to be of use to them. If Russia swallows up the Ukraine then surely Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria will follow in short order. This would leave the Turks with Russia on it's West, East and Northern Borders. It would only be a small trip through Syria and into Lebanon to completely surround the Turks. I think they are planning for that possibility. They would leave NATO were this allowed to happen.
6 posted on 09/06/2008 6:48:38 PM PDT by Camel Joe (liberal=socialist=royalist/imperialist pawn=enemy of Freedom)
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To: george76

I find the whole thing confusing, so I’ll just say I hope it sorts itself out to the benefit of the United States.


7 posted on 09/06/2008 6:56:27 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("McCain and Palin: The Normal People Revolution" ~ rrrod)
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To: george76

The hatred that average Armenians have for Turks is incredible. I don’t see any reconciliation for a long, long time, if ever.


8 posted on 09/06/2008 7:08:42 PM PDT by forkinsocket
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To: Camel Joe

Yikes. I would hope that the Russians wouldn’t be too eager to move back into Bulgaria. Aren’t we building a base there?


9 posted on 09/06/2008 7:19:38 PM PDT by dr_who
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To: george76; AdmSmith; Berosus; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fred Nerks; ...

Thanks geo.


10 posted on 09/06/2008 10:37:56 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile hasn't been updated since Friday, May 30, 2008)
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