SARKISIAN DENIES TERRITORIAL CLAIMS AGAINST TURKEY

AzerNews Weekly
Sept 10 2008
Azerbaijan

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has stated that no officials in
Yerevan have leveled territorial claims against Turkey.

"I don`t recall any Armenian official`s ever putting forward such
demands," he told Turkish Radical newspaper. However, he refused to
provide an explanation as to why his country`s coat of arms includes
the Aghri Mountain, which is located in Turkish territory.

Sarkisian alleged that, on the contrary, numerous Turkish officials
have announced territorial claims against Armenia in the past.

"I consider it out of place to name any persons or political parties,
because I know for sure that there are citizens and individuals in
Turkey who do not even consider Armenia a state," he maintained.

Also, Sarkisian said he saw no need to cite any pre-conditions for
the normalization of relations between the two countries.

He claimed that "not a single Armenian on the face of the earth"
questions whether "Armenian genocide," occurred. At the same time,
Yerevan has never tied Ankara`s recognition as genocide of the World
War I-era killings of huge numbers of Armenians as a pre-condition
for normalizing relations with Turkey.

Armenia and Turkey have been at odds and the border between the two
countries has been closed since 1993 on Ankara`s insistence due to
Armenia`s policy of occupation against Azerbaijan and its claims that
Ottoman Turks committed mass killings in the early 20th century.