Turkish Minister Due In Yerevan

Turkey — Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, 19Apr2008

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan was expected to arrive in Yerevan to participate in Thursday’s high-level meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) organization and possibly hold fresh fence-mending talks with his Armenian counterpart.

The visit was still not officially confirmed by the Armenian and Turkish governments as of Wednesday evening. “We don’t have any information about that so far,” a spokeswoman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry told RFE/RL from Ankara.

Armenian officials seemed confident that Babacan will make what would be his second trip to Armenia in eight months. “The likelihood of his arrival is high,” a diplomatic source in Yerevan told RFE/RL.

Babacan and Armenia’s Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian held a group meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Istanbul on April 7. Reports in Turkish and Western media had said that they might announce an agreement on a gradual normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations on the sidelines of the BSEC ministerial meeting in Yerevan.

However, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has poured cold water on the speculation, repeatedly stating this month that Ankara will not establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan and reopen the Turkish-Armenian border before a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Erdogan’s statements came amid an uproar in Azerbaijan over the possible lifting of the 16-year Turkish economic blockade of Armenia.

That a breakthrough in Turkish-Armenian relations is not on the cards was reportedly confirmed by Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze late Tuesday. “The opening of the Turkish-Armenian border is not expected,” the Azerbaijani APA news agency quoted Vashadze as saying after talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington.

The BSEC meeting in Yerevan is also due to be attended by Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mamedguliev. Azerbaijan will assume the organization’s rotating presidency from Armenia at the meeting.

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