Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany
November 22, 2006 Wednesday 3:52 PM EST

Armenian president in Cyprus to discuss EU-Turkey

DPA POLITICS Cyprus Diplomacy Armenia Armenian president in Cyprus to
discuss EU-Turkey Nicosia
Armenian President Robert Kocharian arrived
Wednesday on a three-day state visit to Cyprus, the first since the
former Soviet republic gained independence 15 years ago.

The visit is expected to fuel further debate about Turkey’s
eligibility to join the European Union, as Ankara refuses to
recognise the genocide against the Armenians in 1915, continues to
suppress freedoms and human rights of the Kurds and denies religious
communities their right to own and operate property.

This has led many European and western governments to recognise
the genocide as a crime against humanity, while the recent law in
Paris criminalising the denial of the genocide sparked a fresh row
between Turkey and Armenian-friendly France.

Turkey also refuses to abide by the Ankara protocol that obliges
it to recognise all 25 EU member states, including Cyprus, and
subsequently open up its ports and airports to Cypriot vessels.

The Armenian president, accompanied by Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian and a 30-member delegation, will begin his official
programme on Thursday, with a meeting with President Tassos
Papadopoulos at the Presidential Palace.

The official talks will include an agreement on co-operation in
combating organized and other forms of crime, as well as the renewal
of a memorandum of cooperation for bilateral education and culture
programmes for three more years.

Cyprus and Armenia are the only two countries that have a clear
policy as regards Turkey, wanting Ankara to undergo reforms and
changes and abandon occupied lands, said Ambassador Vahram Kazhoyan.

The Armenian diplomat said that the visit was finalised when the
two state leaders met at the events marking the 60th anniversary of
the end of World War II in Moscow last year.

On Friday, Kocharian will walk to the Green Line that has divided
the island since the Turkish invasion in 1974 and will later lay the
foundation stone to a monument commemorating the arrival of the
survivors of the Armenian genocide marking the spot where the
refugees first landed in the 1920s.