ARMENIA WON’T STOP EFFORTS TO GET GENOCIDE RECOGNIZED

Interfax
Nov 25 2008
Russia

Armenia will never abandon efforts to get the 1915 killing of Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire recognized internationally as genocide, Armenian
Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandian said in Istanbul.

"Armenia has never said and it will never say that it will drop the
process of international recognition of the genocide of Armenians,"
Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balaian told Interfax,
quoting Nalbandian.

The Armenian foreign minister also said, Balaian continued, that,
"Yerevan will never demand that the Armenian diaspora halt efforts
to achieve the international recognition of the genocide."

The Armenia leadership wants to continue the talks on settling
relations with Ankara, he said.

Turkish mass media, meanwhile, alleged on Tuesday, citing the Armenian
foreign minister, that "Armenia’s position has changed and Yerevan has
a normal attitude to Turkey’s proposal to form a friendly bilateral
commission to investigate the genocide on the basis of historical
evidence."

Nalbandian was in Istanbul on a one-day visit within the framework
of Armenia’s current presidency of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
Organization.

Armenia and Turkey currently have no diplomatic relations. The
Armenian-Turkish border was closed in 1993 on Turkey’s initiative.

Turkey demanded as a term for settling relations that Armenia drop
international efforts to get the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915 recognized internationally and that troops be removed
from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia has said on several occasions that it was ready to establish
diplomatic relations with Turkey without preliminary terms.