In his speech at Turkish-American Council (ATC) in Washington Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said that Turkey feels the pain of the Armenian nation and is patiently trying to restore confidence between the two countries.
He has assured Ankara will pursue efforts on "reconciliation and establishment of friendly relations with the Armenians". Cavusoglu reminded about president Erdogan's condolent statement issued on April 23, 2014. "The statement was about condolence and compassion, it was a significant step. Unfortunately, the Armenian authorities never responded to it", said the Turkish minister. Cavusoglu complained that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's message on Armenian journalist Hrant Dink's death-day "was not enough to convince radical Armenian circles not to query Turkey's sincere intentions".
Cavusoglu called upon ATC members to contribute to Turkey's Armenian-Turkish bridge building efforts. "Since 2009 we have been working on overcoming the confines between the two nations which had peacefully coexisted for centuries", he said. He said that Turkey would keep working in two directions - the historical perspective of the issue (Armenian Genocide - editor's note) and contributing to the settlement of the NKR conflict.