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Barack Obama: â€œMy position on Armenian issue remains unchangedâ€

06 April 2009 14:28 (UTC +04:00)

The presidents held a press conference after the meeting. Abdullah Gul said they had discussed strategic partnership between the two countries, development of economic cooperation, mutual activity in the field of technologies and investments. According to Gul, being a superpower the United States concerns and should concern itself with all the problems in the world.
â€œWe will act together in combating terrorism, in Afghanistan, Middle East and Caucasus,â€ he said.

Barack Obama said it was not accidental that he arrived in Turkey on the last stop of his tour to Europe.
â€œBy ending my one-week tour in Turkey I wanted to underline what an important country Turkey is. Turkey is a NATO member Muslim country attaching great importance to democracy, market economy. We discussed further cooperation with Turkey in Afghanistan and Iraq, steps to be taken while withdrawing American troops from Iraq, fight against terrorism, nuclear problem in the region and in the world, development of cooperation in commerce, business and economy. I repeated that we would support Turkey. We will work together to continue our strategic partnership,â€ he said.

Then the presidents answered the questions of journalists. The Chicago Tribune correspondent asked President Obama whether he changed his position on â€œArmenian genocideâ€ or not. Obama said: â€œMy position is clear and remains unchanged, but the talks between Turkey and Armenia initiated by President Gul encourage me. A number of issues, including the issue you mentioned, are reviewing in these talks. I am following the discussions, which can give results in a short time. Then I want to take actions focusing the attention not on my position, but on the position of Turkey. The tragic events happened in the past. But the world should encourage Turkey and take the constructive position. I donâ€™t want to say anything about the future developments. Turkey and Armenia should make constructive terms. I want to assist the successful discussions held by President Gul and donâ€™t want that somebody to break these discussionsâ€.

Gul said the â€œgenocideâ€ was not legal-political, but historic issue. He said the Armenians in Ottoman Empire were instigated by outside forces in 1915, when the country was fighting in four frontlines. â€œMany people lost their lives in those events. The Turkish people suffered heavy losses. Millions of Muslims were expelled from the Balkans and Caucasus. But Turkey never brought this issue on agenda not to bring up new generations in the mood of hate. Unfortunately, the Armenian diaspora was always keeping this issue on agenda for political aims. We want this issue to be resolved by the historians and experts. The politicians, parliamentarians canâ€™t make decision on this. We have to establish joint commission. We will welcome the decision to be made by this commission. We opened our archives and everyone can come and look at it. We want good relations with our neighbors and for that we started talks with Armenia. We want for positive results of these talks. A new phase begins in the Caucasus. We are working toward the solution of Armenian-Azerbaijani problem and creating of cooperation atmosphere in the regionâ€.

Obama said the United States would continue its support in combating PKK terrorist organization.