ARMENIA, TURKEY WILL GAIN FROM BILATERAL RELATIONS – PRESIDENT

Interfax News Agency
July 21 2008
Russia

Contacts between Armenia and Turkey never ceased, Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan told a press conference on Monday."Contacts between
Armenian and Turkish diplomatic circles never ceased and there is
nothing sensational about Armenian and Turkish representatives meeting
in Bern," he said.

"Both Armenia and Turkey will gain from established relations.

Certainly, in both countries there are people who think the opposite
but this does not mean that we must sit idly by," Sargsyan said.

"The Turkish president’s visit to Armenia may have a positive effect
on the discussion of the existing issues between our countries.

It is very important that there is an emerging trend among the Armenian
and Turkish public toward healthy discussion of the existing problems,"
said the Armenian president.

Asked how long he is willing to wait for the Turkish president’s
reply to the invitation to visit Yerevan, Sargsyan said: "When it
comes to a neighboring country, one does not speak about deadlines,
one has to wait as long as it takes."

There are still no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey.

The 1915 events in the Ottoman Empire remain a stumbling block in the
relations between the two countries. A number of nations recognized
the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Turkey in 1915, which claimed
more than 1.5 million lives. Armenia wants Turkey to recognize the
genocide, but Turkey refuses to do so.

For its part, Ankara demands that the Karabakh conflict be resolved
on the basis of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.