Davutoglu Instructed Turkish Diplomats to Engage with Armenian Diaspora

In a meeting at Turkey’s embassy in Washington Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is said to have issued specific instructions to Turkish ambassadors and general consuls in North America over initiating direct contacts with the representatives of the Armenian Diaspora.

“The dialogue with the Armenian Diaspora will also positively affect the normalization with Armenia,” said Davutoglu.

According to some Turkish media reports Turkish diplomats draw Davutoglu’s attention to the fact that the recently adopted US congressional resolution (H. Rep. 252) that recognizes the Armenian Genocide is a serious obstacle to initiate direct dialogue with the Armenian Diaspora, adding that the Diaspora is focused now оn bringing the resolution at the full Congress session.

“It is not only with Armenia that we want to normalize relations. We want to engage in a dialogue also with Armenians living in Diaspora. At this point it would be wrong to put all Armenians on the same field and consider them as one entity. We should understand it well enough. There will be Armenian communities that we will be able to engage with ... We should change their conceptions,” Davutoglu had said in an early statement.