EU Easter Partnership to help Armenia deblock border with Turkey – president

YEREVAN, April 28. /ARKA/. EU Eastern Partnership program should help Armenia deblock its border with Turkey, Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan said at a high-level meeting in Prague Friday.

Armenia is interested in continuing cooperation within Eastern Partnership that aims at stable and prosperous Europe with no dividing lines, the president said.

Sargsyan stressed the importance of Eastern Partnership’s responding to vital needs of all member-states.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey remain tense because of Ankara’s biased stance on Karabakh problem and its painful reaction to Armenia’s efforts to obtain worldwide recognition of the fact of Armenian Genocide. Thaw in Armenian-Turkish relations began in 2008 on Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s initiative. On October 10, Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers signed the protocols on establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries and development of bilateral relations. The protocols had to be ratified by the two countries’ parliaments, but on April 22, 2010, the Armenian president, seeing that Turkey was dragging its feet, signed a decree ceasing the process of ratification. He said Turkey was not ready to continue the process. Ratification process remains frozen. –0--