Yerevan should normalize relations with Turkey

ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 19 2005

YEREVAN, April 19 (Itar-Tass) — Yerevan should normalize relations
with Turkey without any preliminary conditions, Armenian Defense
Minister Serzh Sarkisyan said at the National Press Club on Tuesday.

“That does not mean that Turkey will not have to admit the Armenian
genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 or change its position in the
Karabakh conflict,” he said.

Turkey is about to become a EU member, but it will have to reform the
domestic and external policy first, the minister said. Armenia cannot
have a closed border on Turkey because of the EU Neighborhood Policy,
he said.