Turkish President Abdullah Gul will tomorrow become the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia, his office said, fueling hopes of easing almost a century of hostility over massacres by Turkish Ottoman empire forces.
Gul will go to Yerevan to attend a soccer match between the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations and have spent decades at loggerheads over Armenia’s attempts to get the massacres classified as “genocide.”
Armenian President Serge Sarkisian invited Gul last month to attend the qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup finals. Turkish diplomats and security officials were in Yerevan this week making final preparations.
“A visit around this match can create a new climate of friendship in the region,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement posted on its Web site. “It’s with this in mind that the president has accepted the invitation.”
“This match could lift the obstacles blocking the coming together of two peoples who share a common history and can create a new foundation,” it said.
The Turkish presidency said it hoped the visit means “an opportunity for a better mutual understanding.”
The trip, which comes amid heightened tensions in the Caucasus region following the conflict last month between Georgia and Russia, will only last a few hours, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
Sarkisian earlier welcomed a Turkish proposal for a new forum in the volatile Caucasus region after meeting a senior Turkish envoy to prepare the visit.
“Armenia has always welcomed and welcomes all efforts directed at the strengthening of confidence, stability and security, and at deepening cooperation in the region,” Sarkisian said in a statement after meeting Gul’s special envoy, Unal Cevikoz.
He said that Cevikoz’s visit “raises the possibility of talks to settle mutual relations” between the two countries.
Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia since it became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. The key reason is Yerevan’s campaign for the deaths of Armenian civilians in 1915 to 1917 to be classified as genocide.
Armenia says up to 1.5 million people were killed in orchestrated massacres during World War I as the Ottoman Empire fell apart before being dismantled in 1920.
Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that between 250,000 and 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife as Armenians fought for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian troops.
About 20 countries have recognized the events as genocide. The European parliament recognized the “genocide” in 1987 and France in 2001 became the first major European country to publicly recognize the Armenian genocide, but did not explicitly blame the Turks.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
RSS