THE "VITALLY IMPORTANT ISSUE" FOR ARMENIA IS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GOOD NEIGHBOR RELATIONS WITH ALL COUNTRIES OF THE REGION

armradio.am
07.10.2008 17:04

"We must focus on the values, which bring us closer and not those,
which separate us. Armenia, like Azerbaijan, is loyal to the common
European values and sees its future in the integration with the
European Union," Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan said in an
interview with Azerbaijani Day.Az agency in response to the question
about the perspectives of the negotiation process on the Karabakh
conflict resolution.

"In line with the program of the New Neighborhood Program of the
European Commission, the European Union is recommended to build closer
relations with the South Caucasus countries, i.e. Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan. It is necessary to see common future in 20 or 30 years
and then we will be able to find mutually profitable decisions. I
think the process will be accelerated following the elections in
Azerbaijan. We believe in Azerbaijan’s constructiveness," he added.

Asked how much the Nagorno Karabakh economy depends on all-Armenian
economy, the Prime Minister of Armenia responded that the
economy of Nagorno Karabakh "depends" on the all-Armenian economy
as much as the economy of Armenia depends on the all-Armenian
economy. "Armenia-NKR-Diaspora is a united organism, which we call
"the Armenian world." Modern realities do20not allow to consider
each of these elements in separate, as the scene will be inevitably
distorted," he said.

Regarding the statement of Day.Az that opening of the Armenian-Turkish
border is a vitally important issue for Yerevan, Tigran Sargsyan noted:
"As is known, the border with Turkey has been closed for about 15
years ago and over these years the Armenian economy has ensured high
growth, which has been two-digit through the past 10 years. Therefore,
it is necessary to clarify what the concept "vitally important issue
for Armenia" means."

"The really "vitally important issue" is the establishment of good
neighbor relations with all the countries of the region, primarily,
Azerbaijan. We approach this issue pragmatically and we consider that
the trends of the world development demonstrate that competition
between countries is growing into regional competition and in the
long-term perspective the cooperation in the region will become the
first issue on the agenda of all the countries in the region. In this
context it would be interesting to discuss "The Caucasus Stability
and Security Platform" of the Turkish President," the Prime Minister
noted. According to him, Armenia’s position regarding rapprochement
with Turkey has always been exact and clear. "We are ready to
establish diplomatic relations with Turkey without any provisions,"
Tigran Sargsyan said.

Asked whether Armenia is t rying to join the joint Baku-Kars-Akhalkalak
railway project of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, PM Tigran Sargsyan
stated: "We are interested in joining any regional project." According
to him, "a single regional transport network for all the regional
countries is of strategic importance.

And the more we have communication, the higher will be the regional
stability and the less will be its vulnerability to external factors. I
think Azerbaijan is also interested in it."

The Azeri agency was interested whether the Armenian economy sustained
great losses after the conflict in South Ossetia. In this regard,
the Prime Minister of Armenia noted that such conflicts cannot but
affect the neighbor countries, especially Armenia, which has limited
transport ways. About 70% of the external trade turnover of Armenia
is conducted via Georgia.

"The damage caused to the Armenian economy by the well-known events
makes $670 mln. These are un-collected taxes, postponed investments,
unimplemented projects and so on. The conflict became a serious test
of flexibility of the Armenian economy. Today we can say that the
flexibility of our economy has risen sharply through the past years,
Tigran Sargsyan said, adding that "like Azerbaijan, Armenia aspires
to have the Russian-Georgian relations improved as soon as possible."