Turkey’s Babacan announces progress in talks with Armenia

ANKARA, Turkey – Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Tuesday (April 7th) Turkey and Armenia have achieved some progress in ongoing talks to normalise bilateral relations.

At a press conference after the second forum of the Alliance of Civilisations in Istanbul, Babacan said “We are working on a comprehensive solution, and our talks are going well. We have made significant progress so far.

” Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations, and their border has been closed for more than a decade. This is largely due to Turkey’s support of Azerbaijan in the ongoing dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and to Yerevan’s effort to classify the killings of 1.5 million Armenian civilians by Ottoman Turks in 1915-1917 as genocide. Last year, however, the two countries launched a normalisation process and stepped up official contacts.