SARKISIAN PRAISES MOSCOW’S ROLE IN TURKEY, KARABAKH TALKS

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Oc t 12th, 2009

MOSCOW (RFE/RL)-Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian praised his
Russian counterpart on Monday for his country’s involvement in the
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and the development of Armenia-Turkey
relations during talks held just days after Armenia signed conciliatory
agreement with Turkey over the establishment of diplomatic relations.

"I want to thank you for your personal involvement in resolving the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Sarkisian said, for his part. "I want
to thank Russia’s leadership and you personally for supporting the
development of our relations with the Turkish Republic."

A statement issued by the Kremlin after the meeting said Serzh
Sarkisian and Dmitry Medvedev discussed ways of stepping up
Russian-Armenian economic and military cooperation as well as
"prospects for the realization of large-scale joint projects in the
energy sphere." The statement did not specify whether two men also
touched upon the Karabakh conflict or Armenia’s ongoing rapprochement
with Turkey welcomed by Moscow.

Welcoming his Armenian counterpart in his Gorki retreat outside
Moscow, Medvedev recalled his trilateral meeting with Sarkisian and
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev held Friday on the sidelines of a
CIS summit in Moldova’s capital Chisinau. "I think that the Russian
mediation in this process is also a very important measure of our
relations," he said.

The statement said Sarkisian pointed to Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov’s presence at the signing of Turkish-Armenian
agreements to normalize bilateral relations in Zurich on Saturday
alongside U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and top European
diplomats. The Gorki talks continued behind closed doors, and it
was not clear whether the two presidents discussed the issue in
detail. None of them made statements afterwards.

Speaking to journalists in Zurich, Lavrov called for a speedy
ratification of the agreements by the Turkish and Armenian
parliaments. "The signatories have to ratify the protocols the
sooner the better and get down to their realization in practice," he
said. Lavrov also said that Moscow is ready to assist in restoring
rail communication between the two nations, alluding to the fact
that Armenia’s rail network is managed by Russia’s state-run national
railway company.

In his opening remarks, Medvedev also regretted a nearly 20 percent
drop in the volume of Russian-Armenian trade this year resulting
from the global economic downturn. "That is certainly unpleasant
and we should think about how to make up for that," he said. "But
considering other areas, things are on the whole not bad," added the
Russian president.

"In my view, our arrangements of the past two-three years have allowed
us to get close to qualitatively new steps in the spheres of economics,
military-political and military-technical cooperation as well as the
humanitarian sphere," agreed Sarkisian.