CONDOLEEZZA RICE SENT SIGNALS TO TIGRAN SARGSYAN
Lragir.am
19:29:05 – 22/10/2008
The meetings of Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan in the United States
were the logical continuation of Serge Sargsyan’s meetings which
the president had during the visit to the United States for the UN
General Assembly.
Tigran Sargsyan stated this on October 22 from the rostrum of
the parliament answering the question of Member of Parliament Avet
Adonts, Bargavach Hayastan Party, about the U.S.-Armenian relations
and their prospects.
Tigran Sargsyan says during his visit to the United States he took
along the messages which Serge Sargsyan wanted to pass to the American
colleagues.
"Especially after that football diplomacy, everyone wanted to know
about new developments regarding the Armenian-Turkish relations,
the settlement of the Karabakh conflict," Tigran Sargsyan said.
He says that in this connection Armenia made principal evaluations. "In
particular, we evaluated two addresses from the UN rostrum, the
statements of the president of Turkey and the foreign minister of
Azerbaijan, and the public statements of some American officials,
we considered them as unacceptable. In particular, the thesis was
brought up that the Karabakh issue should be settled on the basis of
the principle of territorial integrity, which we had to set forth. The
second issue that the logic of settlement of the Karabakh conflict
must be in the framework of the famous UN resolution, which was
also important, that we noted that it was also unacceptable for us,
because in that case the Minsk Group becomes pointless.
In addition, the Minsk Group becomes pointless as soon as American
officials make such statements," Tigran Sargsyan says.
According to him, the American colleagues assured that the problem
cannot be settled on the basis of one principle. "And it is highly
important that the assistant to Condoleezza Rice who arrived in
Armenia after that, also made such a statement, assuring that it is
an official stance," the prime minister says.
Apart from that Tigran Sargsyan says that after the meeting of
Serge Sargsyan and Condoleezza Rice in New York a new phase in the
U.S.-Armenian relations is marked. "At least, from our talk with
Condoleezza Rice, I got a clear signal from her that it is going to be
a quite new phase of cooperation, cooperation between friendly states,
new programs will be worked out, serious technical and financial
assistance will be provided to Armenia. As to the programs of the
Millennium, Condoleezza Rice again made a rather important evaluation,
which is not an examination that the Armenian government must take but
cooperation which is highly important to our society, the political
forces, because political manipulations are frequent that if we do
not do one thing or another, the assistance of the Millennium will
not be provided," Tigran Sargsyan said.