Obama encourages Turkish-Armenian dialogue

US President Barack Obama yesterday called on Turkey and Armenia to "move forward" in fence-mending talks and signalled he would not interfere in their dispute over whether the massacre of Armenians a century ago was "genocide".

Mr Obama said he had not changed his view that the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide but insisted that reconciliation between the two neighbours was more important.

"I want to focus not on my views right now, but on the views of the Turkish and Armenian people. If they can move forward... the entire world should encourage them," Mr Obama, on a two-day visit to Turkey, said.

The negotiation process between Turkey and Armenia "could bear fruit very quickly," he said, speaking at a joint press conference with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul in Ankara.

"I'm not interested in the United States in any way tilting these negotiations one way or another while (the two countries) are having useful negotiations," he added. During his election campaign, Mr Obama had pledged to his Armenian-American supporters to recognise the World War I killings as genocide.

Ankara has warned Washington that such a move could hit bilateral ties and derail reconciliation efforts with Armenia.

Washington has traditionally condemned the massacres, but refrained from dubbing them a "genocide", wary of straining relations with Turkey, a Nato member and a key ally in the Middle East.

In an address to the Turkish Parliament yesterday, Mr Obama said Washington "strongly supports the full normalisation" of ties between Turkey and Armenia, including the opening of their border.

"An open border would return the Turkish and Armenian people to a peaceful and prosperous coexistence that would serve both of your nations," he said.

Mr Obama later delivered his message of reconciliation personally to the foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia when he met them at a reception in Istanbul, the second leg of his visit, in honour of guests attending an international forum on bridging divisions between the Islamic world and the West.

Mr Obama "urged them (Ali Bacacan of Turkey and Eduard Nalbandian of Armenia) to complete an agreement with dispatch," a senior US official said on condition of anonymity.