Interfax, Russia
June 11 2009

No OSCE Minsk Group meeting on Karabakh planned in Italy in July –
Armenian foreign minister

YEREVAN June 11

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian denied reports in Turkish
media alleging that the leaders of the countries making up the OSCE
Minsk Group, i.e. Russia, the U.S., and France, should meet in Italy
in July to address the settlement of the conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh.

"The Armenian Foreign Ministry recently denied this information.

But since these rumors are still being spread, this shows once again
that Turkey in fact does not have any relation to the talks on
settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, because, if this country had
been involved in the process, it would have known that this issue is
not under consideration now," Nalbandian said at a press conference in
Yerevan on Thursday.

Commenting on Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s recent
statement to the effect that Turkey would like to normalize its
relations with Armenia as soon as possible, Nalbandian said, "If the
Turkish foreign minister made his remark in the context of resolving
the existing issues without preconditions, we welcome it."

"But if you separate emotions from reason, a question arises as to
whom this statement was addressed? Was it Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Washington, Moscow, or Brussels? Ankara’s latest statements were
absolutely different. I would like to emphasize that Armenia has said
to everybody: We want to settle our relations with Turkey without
preconditions," he said.

"If the Turkish foreign minister’s latest statement was made in this
very context, we can only welcome it," he said.