BRITAIN WELCOMES THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY
Anna Nazaryan

"Radiolur"
14.05.2009 18:20

UK Special Representative for the South Caucasus Brian Fall visits
Armenia.

During the visit Mr. Fall will have meetings with the President of
Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan. Before
that he visited the National Assembly and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. He had a meting with the Secretary of the National Security
Council, Arthur Baghdasaryan and two unofficial meetings with
ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan and ex-Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan.

"Although I am UK’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus,
this time I’m visiting only Armenia. No visits to Azerbaijan and
Georgia are envisaged," the British official said. He told reporters
that the visit was aimed at the development of bilateral relations.

"Having relations with the South Caucasus is very important, and it is
very important and obvious that the Armenian-Turkish border should be
opened before Turkey joins the European Union," Brian Fall told a press
conference in Yerevan. He added, however, that Great Britain supported
Turkey’s joining the European Union, since it would benefit Turkey,
EU and Turkey’s neighbors. He voiced hope that the Armenian-Turkish
negotiations would succeed and the parties would come to an agreement.

"We stand for the dialogue between Armenia and Turkey and welcome
the process of rapprochement," Brian Fall said.

According to him, they will be happy if positive steps towards
resolution of the Karabakh issue are taken this year.

"The trio of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs remains in the
process. They will be especially active before the summit in Saint
Petersburg, where another meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan is expected. "Turkey is an important country in the region
and we welcome its constructive interest in regional issues. But I
don’t consider it an alternative mediating process," Briann Fall said.