"As the government, our policy is, first of all, the elimination of all problems with our neighbors," Atalay told the Anatolia news agency in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, where he was attending a summit aimed at fostering cooperation in the Black Sea region.

Stating that Turkey has so far settled many of its disputes with neighboring Syria and Greece within a reasonable framework, Atalay said: "There are problems with Armenia due to well-known reasons. We expect Armenia to act reasonably and wish as a neighbor to normalize our relations with Armenia."

The border gate between the two countries has been closed for more than a decade. Turkey closed the gate and severed diplomatic relations with Armenia after Armenian troops occupied the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno Karabakh.

Ankara now says normalization of ties depends on Armenian withdrawal from Nagorno Karabakh as well as on progress in the resolution of a series of bilateral disagreements, including Armenia putting an end to its support of Armenian diaspora efforts to win international recognition for an alleged genocide of Armenians during the latter days of the Ottoman Empire.

/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/