SERZH SARGSYAN: ARMENIAN-TURKISH NORMALIZATION SHOULD NOT BE LINKED TO GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
armradio.am
23.03.2010 12:12
On an official visit to Syria President of the Republic of Armenia,
Serzh Sargsyan, gave an interview to the Syrian Al-Watan newspaper.
The President spoke about the Armenian-Syrian relations, the process
of Armenian-Turkish normalization and the Karabakh settlement.
Asked what influence the passage of the Armenian Genocide bill
by the US Congress could have on the process of normalization of
the Armenian-Turkish relations, President Sargsyan said: "The bill
considered at the US Congress is an internal affair of that country,
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 improvement of relations with Turkey without any preconditions. 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."
Speaking about the economic implications of the closed border,
Serzh Sargsyan said the cost of the closed border was greater on the
political level. "Blockade is one of the methods of use of force,"
he stated.
As for the settlement of the Karabakh issue based on mutual
concessions, President Sargsyan said: "For resolution of any
conflict it is necessary to look for the solution in the causes,
not the implications. The people of Nagorno Karabakh tried to solve
the decades-long injustice in a legal way, but it faced violence. A
security zone was formed around Nagorno Karabakh to ensure its
security, which we neither settle, nor use. When the people of
Nagorno Karabakh get 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, of course in
case the corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh is kept.
I have been repeatedly declaring about this. However, when we say
mutual concessions, we must first of all understand that the idea
of mutuality is the most pivotal here. One should understand that
unilateral concessions only deepen the existing dangers and threats,"
Serzh Sargsyan said.