COLD SHOWER
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
17 Oct 2008
Armenia
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan yesterday summed up the results of
his one-week visit to the United States,
Within the frameworks of the visit, the Armenian delegation had
meetings with US Vice President Dick Chainy, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, as well as the representatives of the World Bank, the
International Currency Fund and the Armenian lobbyist organizations.
Introducing the details of the visit, T. Sargsyan said that during
the meeting with D. Chainy both political and economic issues had
been discussed. The US Vice President introduced his assessments
on the international financial crisis and the activities carried
out by the Bush Administration with the purpose neutralizing its
negative impact. There were also discussions over issues concerning
the Armenian-American cooperation and the Armenian-Turkish relations.
"Our attitude towards the Armenian-Turkish relations has always been
voiced by the President of the republic. That is, we are ready to
regulate our relations with Turkey without any preconditions. It is
Turkey that advances preconditions," the Prime Minister said.
Pointing out that both the US Vice President and State Secretary
attached importance to the Armenian-Turkish relations, T. Sargsyan
introduced some details of their discussion over the issue, "I said
that the speeches delivered by the Turkish President and Azerbaijani
Forei gn Minister at the UN Summit had a ‘cold shower’ effect on
us, since they were not in harmony with the meeting held and the
agreements achieved before that. In particular, we consider that
the phrase ‘occupied territories’ (voiced by the Turkish President)
contains some hazards.
In his speech, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov expressed
belief that the Karabakh conflict should be settled in compliance
with the Resolution adopted by the United Nations Organization; and
this totally distorts the process of the negotiations. Naturally,
our obligation was to inform the US Vice Presided and State Secretary
about this," T. Sargsyan mentioned.