RAFFI HOVHANNISYAN: THOUGH ARMENIA SHOULD PUT PRECONDITIONS, IT’S TURKEY THAT DOES IT

armradio.am
28.04.2009 15:00

Success in the reconciliation talks between Turkey and Armenia
requires both sides to withdraw their preconditions, according to
Armenia’s first foreign minister, former foreign minister of Armenia
Raffi Hovhannisyan told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review in
an interview.

"There is asymmetry. Though in fact Armenia should put preconditions
[before the reconciliatory talks], it’s Turkey that does it. If
it continues like this, they won’t be possible to establish ties,"
Raffi Hovannisian said.

"All three presidents of Armenia deserve criticism of their human
rights and democratic records but all of them attached great importance
to relations with Turkey and reiterated their calls for dialogue
without any precondition," he said.

"The historians should not study whether it was genocide or not. It’s
very obvious that what happened in 1915 constitutes genocide. Thus
they should study how it occurred," he said.

"My roots are in Ordu, a coastal town [in Turkey] near the Black
Sea. Many members of our family were the victims of genocide. But it
was a Turkish family who saved my mother. We cannot blame all Turkish
people for what happened at that time," Hovannisian said.