ARMENIA SURPRISED BY TURKISH DECISION TO SEND OBSERVERS TO POLLS

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
May 9, 2007 Wednesday 01:41 PM EST

Ankara’s initiative to send observes to the upcoming parliamentary
elections in Armenia scheduled for May 12 looks "somewhat strange"
as relations between the two countries remain in limbo, Foreign
Ministry’s acting spokesman Vladimir Karapetyan said on Wednesday.

"Armenia regrets that in the absence of relations between our countries
Turkey was not tactful enough when deciding to send its observers
over here as observers," he said.

"Turkey continues to keep the border with Armenia closed and refuses
to establish diplomatic relations with it," the spokesman said.

"We understand the concern of the OSCE member states about Armenia’s
compliance with its obligations to this organisation and confirm our
commitment to them," the official said. "At the same time, we also
hope that OSCE countries expect Turkey to comply with the obligation
of establishing normal good-neighbourly relationsÛwith Armenia,’ë
Karapetyan said.û.

The head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights, Christian Strohal, said on Monday that Armenian authorities had
informed him that they would not issue entry visas to eight observers
from Turkey, with which Yerevan has no diplomatic relations even
though the two countries share a 330-kilometer border.

Strohal stressed that the Armenian government, like the authorities
of the OSCE member states, are obliged to accept and comply with the
organisation’s norms, including invitations for all OSCE observers.

Turkey has conditioned the normalisation of bilateral relations with
Armenia on its refusal to support Nagorno-Karabakh in its conflict
with Azerbaijan and to press for the international recognition of
Armenianýgenocide in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire.

However Yerevan calls for the normalisation and establishment of
diplomatic relations without preconditions.

–Boundary_(ID_dNq+Rhg3tGnyS42LMMg Iog)–