Interfax, Russia
April 22 2010
Armenia-Turkey normalization process collapses
YEREVAN April 22
Armenia announced on Thursday that it was cutting short efforts to
normalize its relations with Turkey, unilaterally ending a
normalization process launched in October 2009 and accusing Turkey of
being "unprepared to continue the process and move forward without
preconditions."
"We consider the current phase of Armenian-Turkish negotiations to be
over," President Serzh Sargsyan said in an address to the nation.
"Turkey is unprepared to continue the process and move forward without
preconditions. What can be seen as a ‘reasonable timeframe’ has taken
too long. Their position is unacceptable," he said.
He thanked Russia, the U.S. and Switzerland for trying to help the two
countries develop a normal relationship.
The process began in Zurich on October 10 as the Armenian and Turkish
foreign ministers signed protocols mapping out measures that included
establishing diplomatic relations.