ARMENIA PARTY QUITS COALITION OVER TURKEY TIES

Agence France Presse
April 27, 2009 Monday 12:37 PM GMT

An influential Armenian nationalist party said Monday it was quitting
the country’s ruling coalition over moves to mend fraught ties
with Turkey.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) said
it was leaving the government because of quot;insurmountable
disagreementsquot; over the signing of a deal with Turkey on a
quot;road mapquot; for establishing diplomatic relations.

The party condemned the agreement as quot;unacceptablequot;.

In its statement, it said it could not remain in a government that
was prepared to reach a deal with Ankara before Turkey recognised
World War I-era massacres of Armenians as genocide.

quot;It has always been our conviction that one of the main directions
of the state’s national security strategy is the universal recognition
and condemnation, especially by Turkey, of the Armenian genocide,quot;
the party said.

All its officials would resign from all government posts and the part
would become part of the opposition, said the ARF statement.

The ARF, Armenia’s oldest political party and one of its most
influential, has 16 seats in the 131-seat parliament and three
ministers in the Armenian cabinet.

Although its departure from the ruling coalition will not affect the
government’s ability to rule, analysts said it nevertheless marked
a major symbolic blow.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress