Washington hopes that Armenian President Serge Sarkisian will visit Turkey in October to continue normalization talks with Ankara, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state Matthew Bryza has said.

The senior U.S. official also acknowledged that the U.S.-backed Turkish-Armenian dialogue has stalled recently and that he is now less optimistic about the chances for normalization of relations between the two neighbors.

“What I had hoped was going to happen did not happen,” Bryza told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, or RFE/RL’s, Armenian service over the weekend. “Sometimes, if I’m asked to make a prediction, the prediction does not come true. I thought that there was a specific step that was about to occur.”

Bryza also noted that the United States was working together with Swiss mediators, adding: “There is no reason why those steps still cannot happen, and we are working together with the Swiss mediators to try to help the parties think through what it is that they each can do to get the process moving again. I do have some hope that that will happen, but I can’t predict how quickly or what can be agreed.”

Speaking to RFE/RL on May 28, Bryza said that Armenia’s rapprochement with Turkey had not reached an impasse, despite Ankara’s renewed linking of the normalization of bilateral relations with a settlement on the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Visiting Yerevan two weeks later, Philip Gordon, the newly appointed U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, likewise sounded upbeat about the prospects for normalization.

US won’t push Sarkisian

Sarkisian has since increasingly expressed his frustration with Ankara’s stance, accusing the Turkish government of reneging on agreements reached during yearlong negotiations with his government. The Armenian leader made clear last month that he would not accept Turkish President Abdullah Gül’s invitation to watch the Oct. 14 return match of the two countries’ national soccer teams unless Turkey takes “real steps” to reopen its border with Armenia. The two presidents attended the first game played in Yerevan in September of last year.

Sarkisian’s visit to Turkey would be “very good news for America” because it would mean that “two of our friends are coming together,” Byrza said. “We were so pleased when President Gül came to Yerevan and we would be happy if President Sarkisian went to Turkey.”

Bryza stressed, however, that Washington would not press Sarkisian to accept Gül’s invitation. “It’s important not to conflate or confuse our desire for something to happen with pressure,” he said. “I have seen some absolutely ridiculous accusations by some here in Armenia that the United States is pressuring Armenia to agree to one thing or another.”

The U.S. official also said that the success of the Turkish-Armenian dialogue does not hinge on a breakthrough in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks mediated by the United States, Russia and France. “These two processes are separate,” he said. “What is true is that, as I’ve said so many times, if there is progress in one process, that will help to generate a more positive mood throughout the entire region and then help to reduce tension and facilitate progress in the other process.”

Source: Hurriyet
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=us-hopes-for-sarkisian-visit-to-turkey-2009-08-11