Where are Erdogan's ancestors?
The main topics of discussion during the meeting of U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Regeb Tayyib Erdogan were the Turkish-Armenian relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The information about the meeting varies. According to the press service of the White House, in the briefing following the meeting, Obama said that he had welcomed Erdogan's courageous steps toward improving Turkish-Armenian relations and called on him to move forward.
Prime Minister Erdogan underlined that the Armenian-Azeri relations are extremely important in the context of Turkish-Armenian relations. "We discussed the activities of the Minsk Group and what the U.S., France and Russia can do to bring a new sweep to the negotiations. It will have a very positive impact on the process because the improvement of Turkish-Armenian relations is tied to those issues."
Erdogan made a speech at the John Hopkins University with the theme "Turkey in the 21st century: restoration of peace through diplomacy" where he said: "The resolution of the conflict and the liberation of the seven regions in the beginning (including Kelbajar and Lachin with a special status), will contribute to the establishment of Turkish-Armenian relations." The Prime Minister mentioned that he had presented his position during the private talks with U.S. President Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev.
The Azeri presses say that Erdogan made sharper statements, particularly: "The sooner the Minsk Group resolves the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the faster we will normalize Turkish-Armenian relations."
Azeri presses also inform that Erdogan has declared that the Turkey-Armenia Protocols will not be ratified by the Turkish parliament anytime soon.
After his meeting with Obama, Erdogan gave an interview to "Trend News" where he announced that Turkey has no issue with Armenians and many Armenians are living in the territory of Turkey. According to Erdogan, the issue is the Armenian Diaspora. "The Diaspora should not teach us how and with whom to establish relations. The Armenian Diaspora declares that Turkey perpetrated a so-called "genocide". We have to leave that issue up to the historians. I can say one thing-my ancestors never perpetrated and couldn't have perpetrated genocide. If the U.S. is under the influence of the Diaspora, that is not fair," said the Turkish Prime Minister to "Trend News".
