Turkish Ambassador Faruk Logoglu yesterday made a statement on efforts undertaken by Ankara to establish a dialogue with representatives of the US Armenian diaspora. In his words, as reported by the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA), it is incorrect to describe recent meetings of Ecvet Tezcan, a foreign ministry representative, with leaders of Armenian organizations of America as negotiations. “He was not negotiating anything. The idea was to establish a first contact between the Armenian diaspora and the Turkish foreign ministry,” the ambassador said. At that he added that Armenians and Turks “have lived together for hundreds and hundreds of years. We are looking forward to normalizing relations for the benefit of the region.” Meanwhile, the AAA leadership draws attention to the fact that the official Ankara stand over arranging relations with Armenia is “contradictory.” The recent statements by representatives of the Turkish government stand in sharp contradiction to the tone and substance of our earlier conversation with Turkish foreign ministry representative Ecvet Tezcan, AAA board chairman Peter Vosbikian noted. Specifically, he cited a statement of Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan that Turkey will not reopen the border with Armenia unless Armenia stops its campaign for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
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