RA PRESIDENT: DURING TALKS WITH GUL WE DECIDED NOT TO LEAVE CURRENT PROBLEMS TO FUTURE GENERATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
26.09.2008 14:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan addressed the UN
General Assembly today, the leader’s press office told PanARMENIAN.Net.

"I am representing a country which during the last several weeks
appeared in a situation unacceptable in the 21st century.

Once again blood was shed in the South Caucasus and once again
innocent people died because we, the leaders failed to bring a
peaceful resolution to the existing conflicts. The armed conflict,
which erupted in the matter of hours, threatened not only the entire
region but well beyond it.

Nowadays the unsettling expression "Cold War" has emerged again. I
hold the view that the main task of this 63rd session should be a
joint demand to unequivocally rule out this kind of developments. The
memories of the previous "Cold War" are pretty much fresh, and its
consequences are still there.

I think on that direction our main task should be the establishment
of a new, dependable, and viable structure. Challenges facing the
humankind in the last decades have been transformed and reshaped
in a way that makes it impossible to tackle them exclusively with
the structures established after the World War II. We continue to
response to the horizontal, netlike challenges of today such as
terrorism, international crime, drug trafficking and others, through
the institutions which are envisaged predominantly to smooth over the
controversies among the states. Regional cooperation can become one
of the essential means to address these new challenges. Armenia has
always been promoter of this kind of cooperation, and we are confident
that cooperation is one of the most effective means of attending to
the problems existing among the states. With this regard open borders,
crisscrossing lines of communication and interrelated economic systems
are crucial. The UN was among the first to respond to the current
global problems resulted from the rising food and fuel prices. It is
a real danger for all the countries of the world. For poor countries
the consequences will be devastating. Unfortunately, in this situation
we continue to witness unilateral sanctions and border closures.

In face of global challenges, the countries should joint their efforts
to avoid the deterioration of the situation and to provide for the
implementation of the sustainable development agenda. Otherwise we
will jeopardize our collective efforts to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals. Neighboring states have always had and will be
having some problems. However, those problems cannot be solved if
there is no dialogue.

Keeping that in mind and taking advantage of a football game between
our national teams, I invited the President of Turkey to Yerevan. I
was pleased with the bold decision of President Gul to accept the
invitation which made him my co-author in the "football diplomacy"
initiative.

We discussed the array of bilateral and regional issues. The most
important was our decision not to leave the current problems to
the future generations. I am confident that the time has come to
solve Armenian-Turkish problems and on that issue I observed similar
determination on behalf of President Gul. I am certain that it is
necessary to move fast and resolutely on that direction," President
Sargsyan said.