Armenian, Turkish NGOs hold meeting

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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The event highlighted a dramatic thaw in relations between Armenia and Turkey. After months of intensive diplomatic contacts the governments of the two neighboring states appear close to establishing diplomatic relations and opening the Turkish-Armenian border.

Participants of the conference broadly agreed on the need for an unconditional normalization of bilateral ties. "I am very hopeful and positive," said Hakan Ataman of the Ankara-based Civil Society Development Center, or CSDC.

The conference skirted sensitive problems hampering the border opening, focusing instead on the situation with democracy and human rights, environmental problems as well as youth and women’s issues in the two countries. Artak Kirakosian of the Yerevan-based Civil Society Institute, said the participants, among them the daughter of the murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, Delal, agreed to meet on a regular basis and take joint actions in each of these areas. Lilit Asatrian, chairwoman of the Armenian Association of Young Women, said: "I believe that young people can make a very big contribution to settling historical problems."