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Tuesday, 15 February 2005
TURKISH BUSINESSMAN PROPOSES DIALOGUE WITH ARMENIAN COALITION PARTY
By empty (2/15/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Kaan Soyak, a Turkish businessman who co-chairs the Turkish-Armenian Business Council, invited the Armenian Revolutionary Federation--Dashnaktsutiun (HHD) on 14 February to visit Turkey to embark on a dialogue aimed at overcoming the HHD\'s negative image in that country, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. The HHD, one of the two junior partners in the three-party coalition government, has in the past pegged a normalization of relations with Ankara to official recognition by the Turkish government of the 1915 genocide; it also opposes opening the Armenian-Turkish border. Soyak said on 14 February that bilateral trade has increased to $120 million and could triple if the border were opened, Noyan Tapan reported.
Kaan Soyak, a Turkish businessman who co-chairs the Turkish-Armenian Business Council, invited the Armenian Revolutionary Federation--Dashnaktsutiun (HHD) on 14 February to visit Turkey to embark on a dialogue aimed at overcoming the HHD\'s negative image in that country, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. The HHD, one of the two junior partners in the three-party coalition government, has in the past pegged a normalization of relations with Ankara to official recognition by the Turkish government of the 1915 genocide; it also opposes opening the Armenian-Turkish border. Soyak said on 14 February that bilateral trade has increased to $120 million and could triple if the border were opened, Noyan Tapan reported. (RFE/RL)