In Davos, Erdogan to meet with Armenian president Sargsian

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday went to Davos, Switzerland to attend the annual World Economic Forum. Speaking to reporters, Erdogan said that he planned to have talks with Armenian President Serzh Sargsian, also set to be at the meeting. Turkey has showed its sincerity on the possible normalization of ties, said Erdogan. "Turkey opened its airspace to Armenia," he added. "Furthermore, there are almost 40,000 undocumented Armenians in Turkey, here due to the poverty in their country. But we didn't extradite them."

Adding that Turkey renovated and restored an Armenian Orthodox church near Van in eastern Anatolia, he stated that low-level meetings have recently been held with Armenia, and these could be raised to higher levels.

In Davos, Erdogan attended opening sessions of the forum, and then had bilateral talks with his Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkanende, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev. Erdogan is expected to meet with Sargsian today.