A delegation of Turkish diplomats will travel to Yerevan this week to assess the security measures for the potential visit of President Abdullah Gul on Sept. 6, Turkish Daily News reports.
“I will send a delegation to Yerevan to hold talks on the possible visit of President Gul,” Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told reporters during a press conference with his Georgian counterpart. However, Babacan did not give details of what the delegation would discuss with Armenian diplomats.
Turkish and Armenian diplomats meet secretly from time to time in third countries. The last meeting took place in Bern last July.
Turkey cut its diplomatic ties and closed its border with Armenia over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in 1993.
In such an atmosphere, the meeting of the two countries’ national teams in the same World Cup qualification group sparked a new effort to normalize bitter ties. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan officially invited Gul to Yerevan for the match, a move that was warmly welcomed by the United States and the European Union.
Though the official announcement has not yet been made, all indications show that Gul’s assessment will be likely to be positive.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was much more open on the issue. Erdogan implied that Turkey was ready to discuss the problems and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan would also be present during the trip.
“Any unexpected negative development during the visit could totally kill the normalization process. That’s what we are worried of,” officials say. Gul’s visit would not put Turkey’s state policy toward Armenia at stake, according to them.
Meanwhile, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, Deniz Baykal opposed the idea of a presidential visit to Yerevan, speaking to journalists late Saturday on the sidelines of the reception.
Baykal said the rapprochement plan was designed by the United States for the purpose of tearing off Turkey from Azerbaijan. “Turkey cannot take any steps that could hurt its ties with Azerbaijan. His visit would be a major deviation from the state policy,” he said.
