Trend, Azerbaijan
July 31 2009

Armenia rejects Turkish preconditions

Armenia rejects Turkish preconditions linking normalization of
bilateral relations to the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
with Azerbaijan, President Serzh Sargsyan said on Thursday, according
to ITAR-TASS.

"We extended a hand to Turkey despite historic problems, in
particular, the genocide of Armenians in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire,"
he told young representatives of Armenian Diaspora on Thursday.

"Despite the difficult path we proposed to the Turkish leadership to
establish diplomatic relations without any preconditions, to open
roads and then discuss the issues we consider necessary," Sargsyan
said.

"Armenia and Turkey negotiated for a year and agreed two documents,
however after that certain political forces in Turkey attempted to
advance preconditions and link the establishment of diplomatic
relations with Armenia to the Karabakh problem and
Armenian-Azerbaijani relations," he said.

"We realize that Turkey is a big country, we realize its role in the
region and in the world. However we are an independent state and they
cannot speak to us by the language of ultimatums. Any such step causes
a back reaction", Sargsyan said.