le="text-align: ju ü˜&TURKEY WISHES NORMAL TIES WITH ARMENIAñ
Z Turkish and Armenian peoples who have proved over the centuries that they can live together in peace and harmony,' Gül said in the message, according to the Presidency's press office.  

The president wished that their joint efforts will help create an atmosphere based on reciprocal trust and cooperation that will eventually contribute to regional peace and prosperity.

Sarksyan, 53, garnered 52.86 percent of the votes in Tuesday's election with many here considering the election outcome as the victory of status quo. Sarksyan, like his predecessor Robert Kocharian, is seen in Ankara as a hardliner.

`Under normal circumstances it is quite predictable that Sarksyan will pursue a similar policy toward Turkey like that of Kocharian because the two have been close colleagues for a decade,' said retired Ambassador Ömer Engin Lütem, director of the Institute for Armenian Research at the Ankara-based Eurasian Strategic Studies Center.

Armenia's policies over the last 10 years have brought no solution to the problems with Turkey or Azerbaijan, he added. `Indeed, Armenia has been isolated in the region ... I believe that Sarksyan will take this into consideration.'

Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia and closed its border more than a decade ago in protest to Armenian troops' occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani territory.

No early steps predicted
But unlike many political observers, Lütem expects that Sarksyan will take bolder steps to normalize relations with Turkey. `If you ask me when this will happen I don't know but obviously it will not happen very soon,' he added and explained that urgent and early steps could cost Sarksyan seriously and lead to hesitation among the Armenian nationalists who voted for him.

Feryal Orhon Basýk of Istanbul University disagreed that Sarksyan will adopt a milder approach for a resolution of problems with Turkey. `State policies remain unchanged regardless of whichever leader comes to power,' she said. `The Armenian diaspora will never give up on their indemnity claims.'

Turkey and Armenia are also at loggerheads over Ankara's refusal to acknowledge as genocide the killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-16.  
Basýk argued that the Armenian diaspora and the Armenian church had insistently pushed for recognition of the genocide allegations on every platform since 1915 and said this policy will continue in the upcoming period.

Turkey strongly denies Armenian genocide claims and suggests an independent commission of historians be established to study the allegations.