ARMENIA, TURKEY SPEAK DIFFERENT LANGUAGES, RA FM STATES

news.am
April 27 2010
Armenia

The Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process reached a stalemate,
and RA President Serzh Sargsyan broke it, RA Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian stated in his interview with the Public TV of Armenia.

"The recent period has resembled an hourglass, and, as each grain of
sand fell, both Armenia and the international community were losing
their confidence in Turkey," the Minister said.

As regards a coherent foreign policy, Nalbandian said: "A coherent
foreign policy does not mean further blunders. Blunders must not be
repeated, so the Armenian President initiated the process. And we
have done what we have said – as we have repeatedly stated. We have
never said what we have been unable to do."

According to Nalbandian, this process has not impeded the process of
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. "On the contrary,
over the past month the issue has been discussed by the U.S. House
of Representatives, Swiss, Catalonian and other parliaments. Of the
highest importance, however, are the changes that have taken place
in Turkey itself In December 2008, Turkish intellectuals started
offering apologies to the Armenian people. About 35,000 joined the
call. On April 24, for the first time, an event was organized in the
central square of Istanbul. Things have started moving even in Turkey."

As to whether the mediators can hold occasional discussions of the
issue, with Turkey taking advantage of them to show the world it
allegedly negotiates with Armenia, Minister Nalbandian said: "Armenia
will never participate in any process for the sake of the process
itself. We initiated the process and conducted negotiations, initialed
and later signed the protocols, which are now awaiting ratification.

Of course, the question is when it will happen, but I do not see
any need for new talks. I remember, last May, the Turkish side,
dissatisfied with the contents of the protocols, tried to start new
negotiations. They made several proposals. What does that mean? We have
conducted talks, let us launch new talks; now we sign now we do not;
now we ratify now we do not. It is not a thing to be trifled with! In
the morning they say they can ratify the protocols within three days,
in the evening they say they cannot. The next morning they say they
respect the pacta sunt servanda principle. How can we understand
it? ‘We are not mediators between Armena and Azerbaijan, but we want
to negotiate with you to settle issues.’ ‘No preconditions,’ they say,
but ‘do this and that, and we start ratification.’ We are speaking
different languages, one can hardly understand their language."