The Turkish government is planning to restore diplomatic relations with Armenia by appointing an "accredited ambassador" if the Yerevan administration agrees to take a step on investigating the 1915 incidents.
Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian arrived Monday in Istanbul where he will meet his Turkish counterpart and attend a meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC). Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan are expected to discuss bilateral relations, including the so-called "genocide" claims of Armenia.
Hurriyet.com.tr said the two ministers also expected to discuss the normalization process of relations and that Turkey is planning to propose the appointment of an accredited ambassador to Yerevan without opening a diplomatic mission. There is no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey, as Armenia presses the international community to admit the so-called "genocide" claims instead of accepting Turkey's call to investigate the allegations, and Armenia's invasion of 20 percent territory of Azerbaijan.
Turkey and Armenia have been holding contacts indirectly with the mediation of Georgia. With the new Turkish proposal, Georgia would no longer act as an intermediary and the appointment of an accredited ambassador would eventually mean the "de facto" establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
TURKEY'S CONDITION
The report said Turkey has one condition for the establishment of de facto diplomatic relations. Ankara would ask Armenia to send a message saying it is warm to the proposal of forming a commission to investigate the 1915 incidents. Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915.
Turkey rejects the claims saying that 300,000 Armenians, along with at least as many Turks, died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took up arms, backed by Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.
Turkey has offered to form a joint commission to investigate what has really happened in 1915 and opened up all official archives, but Armenia is dragging its feet in accepting the offer.
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