SYRIA’S AL-ASSAD OFFERS HELP FOR ARMENIA-TURKEY DETENTE
Hurriyet
March 23 2010
Turkey
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) and his Armenian counterpart
Serge Sarkisian meet on Monday. AFP photo
Syria’s president offered his country’s services in helping establish
normal relations between Armenia and Turkey while hosting his Armenian
counterpart Monday.
"Syria is ready to play a role … for the establishment of
Turkish-Armenian relations that can ensure normal stability and
security in the region," Bashar al-Assad told a joint news conference
Monday alongside Armenian President Serge Sarkisian.
"I think … officials in Armenia have given us their full confidence,
which is why we are starting immediate steps, especially since
President Sarkisian encouraged us [to do so]," he said.
Al-Assad also praised Yerevan’s decision to normalize its relations
with Turkey despite "many difficulties," according to a report by
Agence France-Presse.
Turkey mediated several rounds of indirect negotiations between Syria
and Israel in 2008, but little progress was made. Syria suspended
the talks in response to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, and
Israeli officials said Turkey’s scathing criticism of Israel’s role
in the conflict has disqualified it as a mediator.
Long divided over the issue of killings of Armenians during the last
days of Ottoman Empire in World War I, Ankara and Yerevan signed an
accord in October to establish diplomatic ties and open their border.
The process has hit snags, however, with both countries accusing each
other of lacking commitment to the deal. Continued progress was dealt
a further blow by a recent United States House committee’s approval
of a resolution that labels the killings as "genocide."
No questioning
Sarkisian, who is in Syria until Wednesday, said his country supported
"peaceful solutions and dialogue to resolve the dispute … without
questioning and forgetting its history."
In an interview with Syria’s Al-Watan newspaper, Sarkisian said the
"genocide" resolution in the House Foreign Affair Committee is an
"internal affair of the United States, which we do not interfere with."
"We did not make the recognition of the Armenian genocide a
precondition for the establishment of Armenian-Turkish relations,
since we stand for the improvement of relations with Turkey without any
preconditions," Republic Radio of Armenia quoted Sarkisian as saying.
"I do not think the attempts to tie the process to the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide by other countries are correct. One thing
is obvious to me – the longer it takes to normalize our relations,
the more countries will adopt such resolutions," he said.
Commenting on the long-standing territorial dispute with Azerbaijan,
Sarkisian said: "When the people of Nagorno-Karabakh receive a
real opportunity to implement its right to self-determination and
when practical mechanisms of security and development are created,
the return of these territories to Azerbaijan may be viewed as a
concession from the Armenian side, provided, of course, that the
corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh is kept."
The Armenian president appealed to Azerbaijan last week to sign
a non-aggression pact which he hopes would prepare the ground for
continued talks about the future of the Karabakh region.
Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been occupied
by Armenian forces since the end of a six-year conflict that left
about 30,000 people dead and displaced 1 million prior to a 1994 truce.
The territory’s unilateral independence is not recognized by the
international community. The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
have been negotiating on the issue under the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe, but little progress has been made so far.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress