POLISH, ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRIES SEAL COOPERATION

PAP News Wire, Poland
February 16, 2009 Monday

Polish and Armenian Foreign Ministers Radoslaw Sikorski and Edward
Nalbandian Monday in Warsaw sealed a cooperation memorandum foreseeing
closer ties between both countries in commerce, science and education.

At a following press conference both ministers stressed that today’s
act confirmed the close ties between their countries.

Sikorski reminded that Armenia and Poland had had good relations for
the past thousand years and that both countries "had undergone much
suffering over history".

Sikorski also praised Armenia’s decision to join Poland’s and Sweden’s
Eastern Partnership integration programme.

Launched last year as a Polish-Swedish EU project, Eastern Partnership
is a multi-phase European integration scheme for Ukraine, Moldova,
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Belarus.

Sikorski said he and Nalbandian had also discussed Armenia’s relations
with Turkey and Georgia and informed that the Armenian minister had
declared the will to strike up normal relations with Turkey.

The conflict between both countries dates back to the World War One
massacre of 1.8 million Armenians in Turkey.

Turkey claims the victim count was 200,000.

Referring to political tension in Armenia’s region, Sikorski said
Armenia was in an area which needed stabilizing and that Poland
"wanted to play a role in this mission".

Between 1988 and 1994 Armenia and Azerbaijan waged heavy battles for
the enclave Nagorno-Karabakh, which eventually joined Armenia. In
the war, which cost 34,000 lives, Azerbaijan also lost control over
seven neighbouring provinces.

Nalbandian said Polish-Armenian relations were developing "very
dynamically’ and expressed hope that the memorandum with Poland would
help tighten cooperation.