WHO LIES TO WHOM?

A1+
[06:29 pm] 12 September, 2008

"Armenia has promised to surrender the occupied territories to
Azerbaijan," Turkey’s President Aldullah Gul’s was quoted by Azeri
mass media when saying to Turkish "Sabah" daily.

Armenia’s parliamentarians interpreted the statement otherwise. Orinats
Yerkir (OYK) faction MP Hovhannes Margarian indubitably stated that,
as always, Turkish media are lying.

ARF Dashnaktsutiun MP Artuysha Shahbazian didn’t possess enough
information to comment on Gul’s words. He simply noted that "if Gul has
made the statement, we still have no idea what might have proceeded
or followed that sentence in his speech. He promised to inquire from
Serzh Sarkissian whether the sides have reached such an agreement.

Bargavach Hayastan (BHK) Secretary Aram Safarian simply refused to make
comments on the information disseminated by Azeri mass media. He said
that they will share their stance after Armenia’s official circles
express their viewpoints on the subject matter.

Republican (HHK) faction MP and HHK spokesperson Edward Sharmazanov
didn’t even make a reference to Gul’s statement. He only enumerated
the provisions of Serzh Sarkissian’s campaign programme which, in
his words, will help solve the NKR conflict.

In this regard, Zharangutiun faction MP Vardan Khachatrian said to A1+:
"Armenian citizens have not been informed about these negotiations. We
have learnt the statement from the mass media accompanying Gul during
his flight from Turkey.

"Now we witness various, in some cases, rather controversial
opinions on the same issue. If you remember we were informed that
the Presidents hadn’t even touched upon the Karabakh conflict during
their meeting. Now we learn from Azeri sources that Abdullah Gul
directly mentioned that "Armenia has agreed to vacate the occupied
territories." Now we still need to differentiate, what they meant by
the expression "occupied territories"; do they mean the liberated
territories or the whole NKR? Citizens must be informed of such
talks. Unfortunately, this imperative is ignored every time. Serzh
Sarkissian’s press secretary Samvel Farmanyan promised A1+ to comment
on Gul’s statement later in the day.