DENIAL OF GENOCIDE NEVER TO BE ENCOURAGED
Gevorg Harutyunyan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 31, 2008
Armenia
Before his visit to Moscow aimed at the meeting with OSCE Minsk Group
co-Chairmen and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Armenian Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandyan convened a press conference yesterday.
"These meetings will be about Karabakh conflict and are organized by
the efforts of the three co-Chairmen. The proposals made in Madrid
will be discussed. Serge Sargsyan and Ilham Aliev confirmed that
the negotiations will continue on the bases of the before mentioned
proposals."
Estimating the 100 days of his tenure the Foreign Minister considered
it both noteworthy and normal, that he has made his first official
visit to Artsakh. "We give special importance to Karabakh issue. We
usually have different discussions with NKR authorities regarding this
issue. We have already had three meetings with Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister, before the meetings between Serge Sargsyan and Ilham Aliev
in Strasburg and St.
Petersburg. The fourth meeting will be on August 1 in Moscow. I will
also meet with OSCE Minsk Group co-Chairmen and we will do our best
to achieve the settlement of Karabakh conflict."
Touching upon Serge Sargsyan’s recent visit to Ukraine the leader of
the Foreign Administration considered it completely successful. "The
meeting between the two Presidents last more than two hours. The
discussions were rather meaningful, constructive and in the atmosphere
of mutual trust. The possibilities of bilateral cooperation in
different spheres, as well as different regional and international
issues were discussed.
We hope this meeting will open a new page in Armenian-Ukrainian
relations.
The Ukrainian President reconfirmed his invitation for Serge Sargsyan
to visit their country.
Serge Sargsyan’s and the Catholicos’ unprecedented participation
in the anointment ceremony of the Saint Cross church that has been
built 650 years back and hasn’t been reconstructed since then, was
really exciting.
Edward Nalbandyan refuted the rumors that have appeared in the
press, according to which he has agreed with the statement made by
Daniel Freed saying that the presidential elections in Armenia have
been "significantly breached" and that by his instruction Armenian
Ambassador to Austria met with OSCE Chairman Luis Maria de Puichi in
the airport in Vienna.
"Freed didn’t make similar statement during his visit in the USA. We
had a very constructive meeting with him and other US officials. But
we didn’t have any concrete meeting in Vienna. Simply according to
the regulation the Ambassadors of our country must meet and see off
those Armenian guests who travel by transit tours. Maybe de Puichi
gave you those details but I don’t have similar information."
0AAs for the speculations regarding the proposal made by Turkey
to set up a committee of historians: "If you are concerned that a
certain committee is going to discuss the issue of the Genocide, than
I must repeat a very simple truth, to make it clear once and forever:
Armenian authorities will never take a step that will encourage the
denial of the Genocide. Similar thing can’t happen.
What we really want is to have regular relations with our
neighbor. There are 2 or 3 closed borders in the whole world and we
are trying to open one of them. We must establish diplomatic relations
without any pre-conditions.
Our initiations had a very positive response in the world.
Hopefully Turkish President will accept the invitation to visit
Armenia on September 6. This will give an opportunity to discuss
all the issues of bilateral concern and regulate all the inter-state
relations. The conversation is not about concessions.
Edward Nalbandyan didn’t agree with the statement that Armenia pursues
"feeble" policy towards Georgia: "Whom do they want to bite with those
teeth? We attach great importance to establishing friendly relations
with Georgia. We are going to take all the possible measures to
consolidate relations with Georgia. We never ignore any issue regarding
Georgian-Armenians. We hope all the issues will be solved. I believe
there is no unsolvable issue between Armenia and Georgia because our
steps derive from the interests of the both countries."