Armenian FM slams Turkey’s non-constructive position
31.01.2011,
16:09
In a last week interview with Russia Today TV channel Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian slammed Turkey’s non-constructive position both on the Karabakh conflict settlement and normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations.
YEREVAN, January 31, /ARKA/. In a last week interview with Russia Today TV channel Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian slammed Turkey’s non-constructive position both on the Karabakh conflict settlement and normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations. He reminded that the process of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations was started by Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan.
‘Yes, we started the process, held talks and signed two protocols, having agreed with the Turkish side that we were taking the step without any preconditions. However, after signing the protocols, Turkey did not find enough strength to remain committed to one of the basic principles of international law, the principle of pacta sunt servanda, which means that if there is an agreement it should be followed. We signed the documents in presence of witnesses – Switzerland, Russia, the United States, France, representatives of the European Union and the Council of Europe. After that Turkey practically returned to the preconditions it had been suggesting at the beginning of the process.
“These preconditions included the attempts to link the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. The United States, France and Russia have declared many times that the two are completely different processes and the attempts to tie the two would harm both. The Turkish side pretends not to notice and hear what the international community is saying.
The second precondition was the Armenian Genocide recognition. When we started the process, we said the recognition of the Armenian Genocide was not a precondition for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. We stressed that Armenia would never question either the fact of genocide, or the importance of its international recognition. We told this the Turkish side, the mediators, and all the countries involved in the normalization process. However, unfortunately Turkey returned to the language of preconditions it had been using before the start of the process, thus taking a non-constructive position on both the process of normalization of the Armenian Turkish relations and the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, since, as I have already mentioned, the attempts to tie the two processes harms both,” Minister Nalbandian said. -0-
‘Yes, we started the process, held talks and signed two protocols, having agreed with the Turkish side that we were taking the step without any preconditions. However, after signing the protocols, Turkey did not find enough strength to remain committed to one of the basic principles of international law, the principle of pacta sunt servanda, which means that if there is an agreement it should be followed. We signed the documents in presence of witnesses – Switzerland, Russia, the United States, France, representatives of the European Union and the Council of Europe. After that Turkey practically returned to the preconditions it had been suggesting at the beginning of the process.
“These preconditions included the attempts to link the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. The United States, France and Russia have declared many times that the two are completely different processes and the attempts to tie the two would harm both. The Turkish side pretends not to notice and hear what the international community is saying.
The second precondition was the Armenian Genocide recognition. When we started the process, we said the recognition of the Armenian Genocide was not a precondition for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. We stressed that Armenia would never question either the fact of genocide, or the importance of its international recognition. We told this the Turkish side, the mediators, and all the countries involved in the normalization process. However, unfortunately Turkey returned to the language of preconditions it had been using before the start of the process, thus taking a non-constructive position on both the process of normalization of the Armenian Turkish relations and the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, since, as I have already mentioned, the attempts to tie the two processes harms both,” Minister Nalbandian said. -0-
