PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA DID NOT MEET TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER IN KIEV

ArmInfo
2010-02-26 11:23:00

ArmInfo. The press-service of the Armenian President has refuted
reports on alleged meeting of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Kiev on Thursday.

In response to the question if there was such meeting in Kiev, the
Presidential Administration replied that A. Davutoglu was among the
other officials invited to the reception in honor of the new President
of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich. During the reception, A. Davutoglu
approached S. Sargsyan and they exchanged views. President Sargsyan
said that progress requires political will and that the process must
have a logical end within the shortest term, otherwise, as it was
repeatedly declared, Armenia will recall its signature under the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols. President of Armenia reiterated that
Turkey’s involvement in the Karabakh peace process is impossible
because that country provides military aid to one of the parties to
the conflict, particularly to Azerbaijan, and always makes subjective
statements on the settlement process. The country dreaming of a
region without borders must start with itself and lift the blockade
of the Armenian border, which will allow opening new communication
and transport infrastructures in the region, the president said. "If
Azerbaijan’s pressure holds the Turkish Parliament from ratification
of the Protocols, nothing holds the executive power of Turkey to
open the border between the two countries, which was closed at the
initiative of Ankara, even before ratification of the protocols,"
Serzh Sargsyan said.

Armenia and Turkey signed the "Protocol on the establishment
of diplomatic relations" and the "Protocol on the development of
bilateral relations" in Zurich on October 10. Afterwards, the Turkish
Foreign Ministry submitted the protocols to the Foreign Relations
Committee of the Turkish Parliament. The final resolution was to be
made before December 7, but wasn’t. To come into effect the protocols
must be submitted to the respective Parliaments for the ratification
on each side.