 |
PM sets Oct. 10-11 as date for sending Armenia protocols to Parliament
Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic ties and share a history of animosity stemming from the killings of Anatolian Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey denies the 1915 killings amounted to genocide but has agreed to set up a commission of international experts on the issue under the protocol it signed with Armenia.
“If we don't see prejudice or some domestic political considerations at play, I believe the preparation for an agreement, which has been initialed between Turkey and Armenia, could be taken to Parliament to be ratified. We hope to take those steps by the 10th or 11th of next month,” Erdoğan said in his speech delivered on Wednesday.
Ankara has said it hopes to open its border with Armenia by the end of the year under a protocol to establish diplomatic ties. Anticipation over an Ankara-Yerevan thaw has been growing ahead of a planned visit by Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan to Turkey on Oct. 14 when he is due to attend the return leg of a World Cup qualifying soccer match between the two countries.
Sarksyan has said he will not travel to the game, the first leg of which Turkish President Abdullah Gül watched last year in Yerevan, unless the border has reopened or there are clear signs it is about to open.
Erdoğan said he thought there should be no hesitation on the part of Sarksyan to make the trip.
New quadrilateral meeting on Iraqi-Syria tension planned in New York A quadrilateral meeting between three neighboring countries -- Iraq, Syria and Turkey -- and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa is planned to take place this week on the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly in New York as part of a Turkish-initiated process to reconcile the political differences between its common neighbors, Iraq and Syria, the Anatolia news agency reported, citing anonymous sources. Iraq and Syria recalled their ambassadors last month after Baghdad accused Damascus of sheltering militants it blames for a string of bombings, including two huge truck bombs outside Iraqi government ministries on Aug. 19 that killed 95 people. The issue was also on the agenda of a meeting which took place on Wednesday in New York between Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Anatolia reported, underlining that the Iraqi side expressed its appreciation for Turkey's efforts to resolve the Baghdad-Damascus tension. As of Wednesday Erdoğan also had talks with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the European Union presidency, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha. Erdoğan also attended a luncheon on Wednesday hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and attended by presidents, prime ministers and diplomats from the UN's 192 member states. Erdoğan, who sat at the same table as Ban and US President Barack Obama, met with Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias as he was entering the luncheon hall. Erdoğan and Christofias had a lengthy conversation while standing, Anatolia said, noting that UN Secretary-General Ban also joined the two for a while. Ankara Today's Zaman with wires |
“If the Turkish president can easily go to Armenia to watch a game, then it should be just as easy and simple for the Armenian president,” to come to Turkey, Erdoğan said. “I think asking for certain conditions to be met to decide to come is not the right way forward in international politics anymore.”
Internalization of democratization initiative
In his speech Erdoğan also touched upon his government's democratization initiative which ultimately aims at reaching a comprehensive resolution to the decades-old Kurdish question by granting more rights to the country's Kurdish citizens.
“We have set off for resolving problems regarding the rule of law, democracy and human rights,” Erdoğan said.
In response to a question from the audience, Erdoğan said their democratization initiative did not solely include the Kurdish issue: “When we established our party, our party program had already included -- whatever you call [it] -- the Kurdish issue or the East or Southeast [Anatolia] problem.”
Recalling steps that have been taken so far such as lifting bans on teaching and broadcasting in Kurdish and the presence of a new state-run Kurdish television station, Erdoğan added a new step has been taken recently, referring to the approval of teaching the Kurdish language as part of the establishment of a “living languages” institute at a state university in Mardin.
“We aim at continuing [the] functioning of this entire democratic initiative process in the short, medium and long run. It is not possible to carry out the entire process at once. We need to continue this process by internalizing and by having it internalized,” Erdoğan said.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| The modern ‘Great Game’: women’s role and status | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Back to the ’80s | |||
| KATHY HAMILTON |  |
||
| Random acts of violence | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| Adding insult to injury in Uludere | |||
| NICOLE POPE |  |
||
| Shifting responsibility | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| ‘Errorism’ | |||
| ORHAN MİROĞLU |  |
||
| ‘Strategic vision’ | |||
| ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ |  |
||
| Turkey through Amnesty International’s eyes | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
