Turkey, Armenia agree to establish diplomatic ties

AP through Yahoo News ^ | 8-31-2009 | SUZAN FRASER

[Mr Fuji]

ANKARA, Turkey – Armenia and Turkey agreed Monday to establish diplomat relations, overcoming a seemingly intractable rift that dates to the early 20th Century and was marked by massacres of Armenians under Ottoman rule.

The neighboring countries would be setting up and developing relations for the first time, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin said.

It is unclear, however, if the talks would touch on the dispute over the World War I-era killings.

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[2banana]

I wonder if Israel would ever agree to diplomatic ties to a Nazi Germany (if they had won/survived)?

[Jemian]

How can it be disputed? The Ottoman’s darn near wiped-out my whole family? It was only until the 1990s that we learned a few of my granddad’s uncles had also escaped. For many years we thought there were only 8 of us in the world.

[Ax]

During the 1970s, ASALA (The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) was quite active, blowing up Turkish diplomatic missions and commercial throughout Europe. The terrorism stopped when the USSR fell, and the old SSRs gained their independence.