President of Armenia may leave for turkey to watch football match as football fan – Democratic Party

YEREVAN, August 27. /ARKA/. RA President Serzh Sargsyan may leave for Turkey to watch the football match as a football fan, said leader of Democratic Party of Armenia Aram Sargsyan at a press-conference on Thursday.

“The visit may not stipulate any negotiations and be analogous to the visit of the Turkish president last year,” Sargsyan said.

According to him, on the other hand the President of Armenia has all grounds for not going to Turkey, as the Turkey has not met its engagements.

“Armenian-Turkish relations cannot develop further as Turkey has lost any interest to the process. Imitation of endevour to regulate the relations was based on the desire to enter the European Union. As soon as Sarkozy and Merkel eliminated that possibility, Turkey lost its interest for regulating the bilateral relations.

There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey and the state border has been closed since 1993 on Ankara’s initiative.

Complicated relations are caused by a number of conditions, namely Turkey’s open pro-Azerbaijani stance in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as well as its strong reaction to the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide conducted by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

The progress in Armenian-Turkish relations has started since last September 6, when President of Turkey Abdullah Gul visited Yerevan at the invitation of his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan to be present at a football match between the Armenian and Turkish national teams as part of the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers. During the visit the sides discussed opportunities for settling bilateral relations. G. S. –0—