‘NO SUBSTANTIAL OBSTACLES TO NORMALIZATION’

Turkish Daily News
Oct 30 2008
Turkey

There are no substantial obstacles to the normalization of
Turkish-Armenian relations, Armenia’s foreign minister told BBC
Turkey yesterday.

"I cannot say everybody is happy that we are making peace with
Turkey. But as leaders of the two countries, we are ready to make
exceptional decisions," Edward Nalbandian said, referring to the hard
line Armenian diaspora’s negative stance on dialogue with Turkey.

"The diaspora consists of two-thirds of the Armenian population,
therefore we can not ignore their opinion. However, we possess the
necessary courage to overcome this problem," he added.

Asked whether the search for normalization in Armenian-Azerbaijani
relations would go hand in hand with normalization efforts in
Turkish-Armenian ties, Nalbandian said they would not.

"The meeting between the three ministers was (Turkish foreign minister)
Mr. Babacan’s idea," he said, referring to the meeting between the
Turkish, Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in New York last
month, "He launched the idea in order to discuss Turkey’s proposal
for a Caucasus Platform and we discussed solely that."

No alternatives to the Minsk process

"We are considering our problems with Azerbaijan in the context of
the Minsk process. It is an effective structure supported by the
international community. And we have no intention nor the need to
reinvent the wheel," noted Nalbandian.

"I do not see a connection between the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations
and the Turkish-Armenian dialogue," he said, adding that he was very
optimistic toward the normalization process.