Iranian president visits Armenia as economic and political ties grow
The Associated Press
Monday, October 22, 2007
YEREVAN, Armenia: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited
Armenia on Monday and struck several agreements to bolster economic
ties between the two nations.
Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharian, discussed
plans to build a railway link and two hydroelectric power plants on
the border river, Araks.
The projects are important for landlocked Armenia, which has struggled
with power shortages and transport blockades since the collapse of the
Soviet Union. Neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey have shut their
borders with Armenia in the wake of a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh,
a breakaway region of Azerbaijan controlled by ethnic Armenians.
"We had very good talks that will help the development of
infrastructure between our nations," Ahmadinejad said after the
agreements were signed. "There are good prospects for a constructive
cooperation to the benefit of the regional security."
The two presidents said that construction of the railroad, which would
give Armenia long-sought access to the Persian Gulf, could begin next
year after a technical survey.
Kocharian said construction of the hydroelectric plants on the Araks
river could also start soon, but he would not give further details.
He added that Iran and Armenia "are seriously determined" to build an
oil refinery in Armenia. Officials have discussed plans for an oil
pipeline from Iran to Armenia, but no agreements have been signed yet.
After Monday’s talks between Ahmadinejad and Kocharian, officials from
the two nations also signed agreements on trade, banking and support
for mutual investment.
Earlier this month, Iran opened its borders to Armenian trucks
transporting goods to Iranian ports on the Caspian Sea, a more direct
route for goods destined for Central Asia or southern Russia than the
alternative route through Georgia.
Kocharian was Ahmadinejad’s guest last year in Tehran, and in March
the two presidents formally opened the first Armenian section of a
natural gas pipeline between the two countries.
"We seriously intend to develop joint oil and gas projects," Kocharian
said Monday.
The two leaders did not touch on international issues at their news
conference, but Ahmadinejad later launched a thinly veiled attack on
U.S. policy in a speech at the Armenian State University.
"The world must be governed by good, striving for justice and
morality," Ahmadinejad said. "If the leaders of great powers proceeded
>From these values, there wouldn’t have been occupation of Iraq … and
bloodshed in Afghanistan and Palestine."
On Tuesday, the Iranian leader will enter the controversy over the
World War I-era killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks by laying a
wreath at the memorial complex commemorating the victims.
Scholars view the killing of 1.5 million Armenians, who were
Christians, as the first genocide of the 20th century. But debate on a
resolution in the U.S. Congress that would recognize the killings as
genocide has angered Turkey, which says the toll has been inflated and
that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
Ahmadinejad avoided taking sides on the issue in Monday’s speech
before the university students, saying only that Iran condemns any
crimes against humanity.
He has caused outrage in the past by suggesting that the Holocaust is
a "myth" invented by Jews. An estimated 6 million Jews were killed
during the Holocaust.
Source: U-GEN-Armenia-Iran.php
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
