Armenia turns to Cyprus as bridge to E.U.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
May 20, 2004, Thursday

NICOSIA — Cyprus can act as a bridge between the European Union and
its neighbours, including Armenia, Parliament President Demitris
Christofias said Thursday after a meeting with Armenian Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian, on a working visit to the island.

Christofias said they discussed the latest developments in Cyprus as
well as the prospect of enhanced bilateral cooperation.

“Friendly relations, development of economic and cultural exchanges,
when accompanied by practical steps, become more solid,” said
Christofias.

“In future, we will focus on economic cooperation. There are no
political differences between our two countries. Just the opposite, we
have a lot in common on the resolution of conflicts and regional peace
and stability so we will continue to work together in international
organisations,” he said.

Meanwhile, Oskanian also discussed Cyprus’ accession to the E.U.,
the problems in the Caucasus and the issue of Nakorno Karabakh with
his Cyprus counterpart George Iacovou.

He said “we see Cyprus as a friendly country, as an insider in the
E.U. and we can rely on its help to further advance our integration
processes with European structures and particularly with the E.U.”

Iacovou referred to the presence of an Armenian community in Cyprus
that is active in the economic, social and political life of the
country.

Oskanian said he listened to the explanation of the Cypriot minister
about the the U.N. unification plan and the reasons the Greek Cypriot
community rejected it in a referendum on April 24.

“We’ve also talked about other regional matters, particularly Armenia’s
relations with its neighbours, Turkey in particular,” he noted, adding
“as a goal before us we have the normalisation of ties between Armenia
and Turkey.” dpa mdp bg