RA NA VICE-SPEAKER: ARMENIANS HAVE ALWAYS EXPRESSED WILLINGNESS TO ESTABLISH RELATIONS WITH TURKEY

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 24 2006

YEREVAN, April 24. /ARKA/. Armenians have always expressed willingness
to establish relations with Turkey, as the RA NA (National Assembly)
Vice-Speaker Tigran Torosyan stated after laying flowers on the
Genocide Memorial.

“Armenians has always sought common grounds for cooperation with
Turkey, so Turkey has to think of relations with Armenia itself”,
Torosyan stated.

At the same time he emphasized that development of relations will
not depend on Turkey’s entering or not entering the EU.

“We must think of our Eurointegration, regardless of the fact whether
Turkey is or is not member of the EU”, Torosyan stated.

Armenian Genocide in 1915 – 1923 is considered to be the first
genocide of the XX century, organized and systematically conducted
by the government of Young Turks. In 1915, in Western Armenia, which
was part of Ottoman Empire, more than 1,5 mln Armenians were massacred.

The fact of genocide has been already recognized by many countries,
namely Uruguay (first in 1965 officially recognized the Armenian
Genocide), Russia, France, Argentina, Greece, Low Chamber of the
Italian Parliament, majority of states of the USA, Parliaments
of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium, Wales, National Council of
Switzerland, Chamber of Communities of the Canadian Parliament and
Seim of Poland.