-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 21, 2005 Thursday 11:57 AM Eastern Time
Armenia may better relations with Turkey without preconditions
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN, April 21
Armenia’s government is ready to establish good relations with Turkey
without preliminary conditions, Prime Minister Andranik Margarian
said Thursday.
Turkey’s recognition and condemnation of the genocide of Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire would be the touchstone in Armenian-Turkish
relations, Margarian said.
“Gradual restoration of confidence would promote regional security
and cooperation, settlement of conflicts and neighborliness in the
South Caucasus,” Margarian told a conference devoted to the 90th
anniversary of Armenian genocide.
“Armenia sees eye to eye with those political quarters in Europe who
argue that Turkey as a country that wants to join the European Union
should at least display the ability to critically reconsider its
past, and to admit its historical guilt,” Margarian said. “We want to
see Turkey as a country that has relieved itself of the legacy of its
past and distanced itself from its nihilistic position and policy.”
“However, today’s Turkey as a successor of the Ottoman Empire denies
the very instance of Armenian genocide, and by doing so it has put
itself on the sidelines of the process of repentance and
reconciliation with its own history,” Margarian said.