ARMENIAN PRESIDENT: ARMENIAN PEOPLE TO SUPPORT NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS WITH TURKEY
/ARKA/
April 27, 2009
YEREVAN
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan briefed the members of the country’s
National Security Council on negotiations to normalize Armenia-Turkish
relations and expressed confidence that the Armenian people would
support this normalization.
Sargsyan stressed that the joint statement made by foreign ministries
of Armenia, Turkey and Switzerland on the night of April 23 is a
record of efforts to improve Armenia-Turkey relations, the presidential
press service reported.
Foreign ministries of Armenia and Turkey, together with the Swiss
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs made a joint statement about
normalization of the relations on the night of April 23. The statement
reads that the parties reached an agreement on a wide-ranged settlement
of bilateral relations. The sides also agreed on establishing a
"road map" for normalization of the relations.
Armenian President expressed confidence that the document will be
presented to the society in the near future and that the people and
the society will give their approval to its provisions.
"Our approach is clear and simple – there cannot be closed borders
in Europe in the 21st century. In order to be an efficient state, we
should diversify our transport corridors, energy sources, geography
of economic ties." The President said.
He pointed out the recent speculations saying that Armenian-Turkish
relations depend on Turkish-Azerbaijani relations or that
concessions on Karabakh issue are a prerequisite for normalization
of Armenian-Turkish relations.
"I repeat it once again – Azerbaijani topic has never been spoken over
in our relations with Turks, neither has been Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
Improvement in Armenian-Turkish relations may, and most probably
will, have positive impact over settlement of Karabakh problem,
but it cannot be a pre-condition," the President said.-0–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
