SERZH SARGSYAN REAFFIRMS ARMENIA’S LOYALTY TO EUROPEAN VALUES

Noyan Tapan
May 18, 2009

YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Reaffirming Armenia’s loyalty to
European values, RA President Serzh Sargsyan at the May 18 meeting
with EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby
recorded with satisfaction that the Eastern Partnership Summit held
lately in Prague is a successful start for giving a new content to
the Armenia-EU cooperation and for expanding further contacts.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA President’s Press Office,
S. Sargsyan and P. Semneby gave assurance that frequent meetings and
discussions are evidence of the expansion of Armenia-EU partnership
agenda, as well as give a possibility to quickly respond and to give
solutions to emerging problems.

They positively assessed stipulation of balanced approaches on
the Nagorno Karabakh problem in the final statement of the Eastern
Partnership Summit.

At the meeting S. Sargsyan and P. Semneby also touched upon the
Armenian-Turkish political dialogue, prospects of Nagorno Karabakh
peaceful settlement, and further deepening of democratic reforms
in Armenia.

S. Sargsyan reiterated that Armenia sees Nagorno Karabakh conflict’s
peaceful settlement only within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group,
on the basis of Madrid proposals, all principles of international law
and of basic documents, self-determination right, exclusion of use
of force, and principles stipulated by the OSCE Foreign Ministers’
Helsinki statement. He emphasized Armenia’s readiness to normalize
relations with Turkey within the framework of reached agreements
and in fixed time constraints. S. Sargsyan said that any attempt of
intervening into the Nagorno Karabakh settlement process by Turkey
can only have a negative impact on the Nagorno Karabakh settlement
negotiations process.