Leader urges debate of Turkey’s “blockade” of Armenia at EU summit

Mediamax news agency
2 Dec 04

YEREVAN

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has sent a letter to the leaders
of all the EU member countries calling for the discussion of Turkey’s
blockade of Armenia at the forthcoming EU summit on 17 December,
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said in the evening of 1
December in an interview with Armenian Public TV.

The Armenian foreign minister said that he had presented the Armenian
side’s position at a meeting with the ambassadors of the EU member
countries accredited to Armenia.

Yerevan is not expecting that an issue of lifting Turkey’s blockade of
the Armenian border will become an official precondition for Ankara at
the summit which will focus on the issue of possible dates for opening
talks on Turkey’s accession to the EU, Oskanyan said.

However, “we want the issue to be raised at the summit, as we consider
unacceptable the fact that the country, which is on the threshold of
the talks on the EU accession, has the closed borders with the country
involved in the EU’s New Neighbourhood Policy”, he added.

” We are carrying out very serious work in this direction and will
continue it within two weeks,” Vardan Oskanyan said.