VAHAN HOVHANNISSIAN BELIEVES THAT IN THE COURSE OF TIME NATO WILL INFLUENCE TURKEY FOR THE NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

Mediamax
January 30, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian presidential candidate, Member of
"Dashnaktsutiun" party Bureau Vahan Hovhannissian stated in Yerevan
today that sooner or later NATO will have influence on Turkey,
concerning the issue of normalization of relations with Armenia.

Mediamax reports that Vahan Hovhannissian said this today during the
meeting with journalists in the Information Center on NATO in Yerevan.

The candidate noted that the talks on Turkey’s entry in the EU are
accompanied with reforms, which will have positive influence on the
prospect of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations as well. At the
same time, Vahan Hovhannissian stated, Turkey is a member of NATO for
already a few decades and was always considered the "western advanced
post of the Alliance". "In the soviet time, Turkey opposed the Soviet
Union, today it also has a "special role", caused by the instability
in Iraq and in the whole Middle East", Member of "Dashnaktsutiun"
Bureau stated.

Despite that fact, Vahan Hovhannissian expressed hope that other
member-states of NATO will realize the reason of cautious perception
of the Alliance in Armenia, conditioned by Turkey’s policy, and will
work to improve the situation.