ARMENIAN, TURKISH SPEAKERS FOCUS ON DIPLOMATIC TIES

Mediamax news agency
20 May 04

Yerevan, 20 May: The first ever meeting of the Armenian and Turkish
speakers took place on 19 May in Strasbourg.

The major topic of the meeting between the Armenian and Turkish
speakers, Artur Bagdasaryan and Bulent Arinc, were prospects for
establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries. Moreover,
the press service of parliament said that Bagdasaryan and Arinc
discussed the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict settlement and the Armenian
genocide.

The National Assembly speaker expressed his wish that Turkey
should take an unbiased position on the Karabakh settlement
process. Bagdasaryan also said that the annihilation of 1.5m Armenians
as a result of a policy of genocide was an indisputable historical
fact. At the same time, he said that territorial claims to Turkey
are not on the agenda of Armenia’s foreign policy at the moment.