IF TURKEY MISCALCULATED, IT’S THEIR AFFAIR: NALBANDIAN

news.am
April 14 2010
Armenia

Sargsyan-Erdogan meeting in Washington offered an opportunity for
Armenian side to have coherent idea of Ankara’s stance on rapprochement
and reassure Yerevan’s accurate estimates. "We are now more confident
in expediency of our further steps and approaches.

Whenever the President sees fit, he will make the relevant decisions
public," minister added.

In addition, Turkish Premier tried to raise Karabakh issue, but got an
adequate response that Armenia-Turkey reconciliation cannot be linked
with Karabakh peace process, Nalbandian told Armenian journalists
in Washington.

"There are no grounds to discuss Karabakh issue with Turkey. Firstly,
Ankara cannot mediate Karabakh peace process, secondly Yerevan will
make no concessions to normalize relations with Turkey," he noted.

Nalbandian stated that linkage of the processes will hamper both,
and this opinion is shared by OSCE MG Co-Chairs as well.

"If Turkey miscalculated, it’s their affair. If Ankara changed
its stance after Protocols’ signing we should also make relevant
conclusions and wonder whether other party is the right partner for
dialogue continuation," the Minister said. According to him, if Turkey
indeed has no intention to kill the process, it should show readiness
to ratify and implement the Protocols, as well as normalize relations
with Armenia without preconditions not to fall short of international
community’s expectations.

Recently, Armenia cozied up to the U.S. and a high-level dialogue
was established. RA President’s meetings with President Obama and
Secretary Clinton allowed for the dialogue continuation, discussion of
Armenia-Turkey reconciliation as well as Karabakh issue, RA FM stated.