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Armenia Invites Turkey’s Erdogan to Attend Genocide Commemoration Ceremony in Yerevan

© Sputnik / Sergei Guneyev / Go to the mediabankTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may take part in Yerevan’s commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may take part in Yerevan’s commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire - Sputnik International
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Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to take part in Yerevan’s commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire, according to an official statement published on Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

YEREVAN, August 29 (RIA Novosti) - Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to take part in Yerevan’s commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire, according to an official statement published on Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

“During the reception given after the ceremony in the honor of the heads of delegations, Minister Nalbandian had a short conversation with President Erdogan and handed him over the official invitation of the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan to attend the Remembrance Ceremony, dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide that will take place in Yerevan on April 24, 2015 [sic],” the statement says.

The Armenian Genocide refers to the Ottoman government’s extermination of Armenians in their historical homeland during World War I.

Ottomans massacred the Armenian male population and sent Armenian women, children and elderly on so-called “death marches,” on which thousands of captives died.

In total, over 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the mass genocide.

Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, refuses to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

No diplomatic relations exist between Turkey and Armenia, and the Turkish-Armenian border has been closed since 1993.

Relations between the two countries deteriorated following the escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as Turkey openly supports Azerbaijan’s position in the dispute.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict evolved from the war of 1988-1994 between ethnic Azeris and Armenians who fought for the disputed lands of the Nagorno-Karabakh region. More than 35,000 people died in the war, but tensions in the region remain.

In 2008, the Armenian president initiated the process of establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In 2009, the "Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the Republic of Turkey and the Republic of Armenia" was signed by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian in the Swiss city of Zurich.

The same year, Erdogan froze the agreement and made it clear that Ankara would not establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan and open its borders before the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved.

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