NEW YORK (Anatolian)–The normalization talks between Turkey and Armenia have entered a “sensitive” phase, according to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said Thursday that the protocols guiding the establishment and development of relations between Turkey and Armenia will be sent to the Turkish Parliament next month for ratification.
“We have reached an important stage with the step we have taken with Switzerland’s mediation and I believe we can send the initialed document to Parliament if we do not face any prejudice and if steps are not taken by thinking just about the internal politics,” Erdogan told a conference at Princeton University near New York late on Wednesday.
He said the document would be sent to the Turkish Parliament on Oct. 10 or 11.
The prime minister also said Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian could visit Turkey for a World Cup qualifier between Turkey and Armenia in October. Turkish President Abdullah Gul visited Armenia for an away match last year.
“Turkey will have neighborly relations with Armenia within the framework of mutual respect,” he said.
Erdogan said there was need for dialogue that would bring together regional countries, referring to Turkey’s proposal of a stability and cooperation platform in the Caucasus. He said Turkey aimed to make the region a basin of peace and wanted to solve Azerbaijan-Armenia, Turkey-Armenia and Russia-Georgia problems through this platform.
The Turkish prime minister listed the world’s recent problems as wars, the economic crisis, hunger, poverty, terrorism, energy safety and climate change, and underlined the need for a new global order.
“There should be a fair and pluralist order embracing everyone, based on confidence and which sees differences as a richness,” Erdogan said. He said there was need for a new understanding of leadership, adding, “Turkey can contribute to the new global order.”
On the stalled Middle East peace negotiations, Erdogan said: “Is it possible to see the Middle Eastern problem as only a regional problem? I believe many problems in the world will be solved when the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is overcome.”
The prime minister also said the new economic order should also be fair. Referring to the cultural aspect of the new global order, Erdogan said Turkey had assumed the co-leadership of the Alliance of Civilizations, proving it was possible and necessary for different cultures and civilizations to live in a constructive atmosphere.
He spoke at the Woodrow Wilson school at Princeton! How ironic!
Am I seeing things or is that Erdogan speaking at the Woodrown Wilson School of Policy and International Relations at Princeton. Is this a coincidence that with the Protocols Turkey will be destroying the last vestiges of Wilson dying deed to provide justice to the world after he had just won the war to end all wars.
This is the diplomatic equivalent to spitting in the collective face of Ameirca.
And the world goes on, as if this never even happened.