ARMENIAN-TURKISH TALKS NOT TIED TO SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH PROBLEM – SARGSYAN

Interfax
Sept 1 2009
Russia

Negotiations between Armenia and Turkey are not being tied to the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan said.

"I have said repeatedly that negotiations with Turkey and agreements
that have been reached with it do not include any preconditions
concerning a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or
some other issue related to it," Sargsyan said at an annual meeting
of key officials from the Armenian Foreign Ministry and the heads of
Armenia’s diplomatic representations abroad in Yerevan on Tuesday.

"Issues from the historical field need to be discussed not by a
commission of historians but within the format of a sub-commission
of an intergovernmental commission," Sargsyan said.

For the first time in history of an independent Armenia, it will
hold public debates before signing important international documents,
which should make it possible to hear all positions on and approaches
toward this problem, he said.