ARMENIA EXPECTS TURKEY TO TAKE "PRACTICAL STEPS" TO NORMALIZE TIES – MINISTER

Armenian Second TV Channel
July 3 2009

Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan has said that his
country expects Turkey to take "practical steps" as part of previous
arrangements on normalizing ties, the Armenian state-owned Second
TV Channel reported on 3 July. Nalbandyan said this today at a news
conference held jointly with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Greek
Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, TV reported.

"Previously Turkey suggested preconditions – one connected with the
settlement of the Karabakh issue, and the other with the process of
recognition of the genocide [killing of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915]," Nalbandyan said at the news conference. "Our
arrangement with Turkey when we started the negotiations, when we held
the negotiations, was the following – we came to agreement with the
mutual consent and understanding that we are going to settle these
relations and open the borders without preconditions."

In a comment on the recent statement of the Turkish foreign minister
that Turkey stays committed to the arrangement achieved with Armenia,
Nalbandyan said: "If the Turkish foreign minister made this statement,
one can only welcome it, as the arrangement that was achieved between
Armenia and Turkey was to normalize relations and open borders between
Armenia and Turkey without preconditions. If Turkey is ready to go
ahead with the implementation of these arrangements, one can only
welcome this, and we expect practical steps."

Turkey closed its border with Armenia over the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict in 1992, and the countries have had no diplomatic ties since.