SERZH SARGSYAN: KARABAKH CANNOT BE GIVEN TO AZERBAIJAN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES
TEHRAN
APRIL 16,
NOYAN TAPAN
On the second day of his official visit to IRI, on April 14, RA
President Serzh Sargsyan met with nearly 3000 representatives of the
Iranian Armenian community at the Ararat sports and concert complex.
"There are, on the one hand, warm human and, on the other hand,
practical, mutually beneficial relations between the friendly peoples
and countries of Armenia and Iran," the RA President said assessing
the negotiations within the framework of his visit as "successful." He
thanked his Iranian colleagues for thier constructive position and
readiness for all-round development of Armenian-Iranian relations. He
also expressed gratitude to Iranian Armenians. "It is not accidental
that the emphasized positive attitude to Iranian Armenians is even
stipulated by the IRI Constitution today," the RA President said.
S. Sargsyan also emphasized that Armenian churches, schools and
libraries, many public and spiritual centers, large Armenian literary
heritage prospered in the Iranian land and became an integral part
of Iranian spiritual-cultural heritage. It is not accidental that
in 2008 UNESCO recognized the Armenian magnificent monuments, Saint
Tadevos Apostle, Tade Church (which is perhaps the oldest monument
of early Christian world) part of Iranian world historic heritage.
"Our duty is to establish the Armenian-Iranian wisdom of stability
and peace in the whole region," the RA President said. He emphasized
that tolerance, peace, and cooperation are not merely ideas for the
two peoples, the peoples’ wisdom made those ideas reality. According
to S. Sargsyan, Armenian people’s mission to the world is clear,
an Armenian should be a good citizen of his country wherever he lives.
"We are firm in the issue of solving the problems faced by
our country," the RA President assured stating that Armenia’s
position in the issue of Nagorno Karabakh peaceful settlement
is unchanged: Karabakh cannot be given to Azerbaijan under any
curcumstances. "Azerbaijan’s claims to Artsakh have neither legal
nor historic and moral ground. And Nagorno Karabakh cannot be part of
Azerbaijan: in this issue Azerbaijan long ago exhausted all supplies
of confidence," S. Sargsyan stated.
Touching upon the Armenian-Turkish relations, the RA President said:
"The truth is the following: we are ready to establish normal relations
with Turkey without preconditions. Turkey has not been ready for it
so far. Now it seems that prerequisites are created for coming out
of this inadmissible condition when the neighboring states do not
have even diplomatic relations.
However, here, in this hall I should reiterate that to establish
relations with Turkey does not mean at all to call into question the
Armenian Genocide.
At the end of the meeting S. Sargsyan gave the Ararat center the
cross-paper authored by Ararat Sargsian, which is the copy of one of
Jugha cross-stones destroyed by Azeris.