Turkish PM says signing of Turkey-Armenia protocols "significant step"

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that the signing of Turkey-Armenia protocols was a "significant step and we are pleased with that."

Erdogan said at a news conference after a meeting of the central executive board of his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party that "I sent a letter to former Armenian President Robert Kocharian in 2005 and proposed to resolve problems between our countries. But we could not even receive a response. Now, an exemplary development occurred in our efforts to find peaceful solutions in our region."

"Our political will is to resolve our problems with Armenia through dialogue. Then, great opportunities of cooperation will emerge in all fields for Turkish and Armenian peoples," he said.

"Turkish and Armenian people have lived side by side for centuries. Why should we be infatuated with the bitter periods of the history? We expect Armenia to fulfill rules of the international law. We want to turn southern Caucasus to be a region of permanent peace, friendship, stability and prosperity," he said.

"But I want to reiterate once again Turkey cannot assume a positive attitude unless Armenia withdraws from Azerbaijani territories," Erdogan said.

He said Ankara hopes that Azerbaijan and Armenia would resolve the Upper Karabakh dispute, adding that "if it happens, our people will quickly adopt the normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations."

On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Eduard Nalbandian signed two protocols to normalize ties and develop relations between the two countries in the Swiss city of Zurich.

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana attended the signing ceremony.

Turkey and Armenia agreed to establish diplomatic ties and open their long-closed borders, according to the texts of the protocols. The two protocols now await ratification by the two countries' parliaments.

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic or economic ties since Armenia declared its independence in 1991. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 to support Azerbaijan during its conflict with Armenia over the Upper Karabakh region, an enclave of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenian troops.

Turkey-Armenia rifts went back to the World War I period.

Armenia claims more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during the time, but Turkey insists that the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire collapsed.

Source: Xinhua