Sargsyan: Turkey’s blockade of Armenia should be in spotlight of international organizations

YEREVAN, June 4. /ARKA/. Turkey’s blockade of Armenia should be in the spotlight of international organizations, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said Wednesday after he met with his Swiss counterpart and the OSCE chairman-in-office Didier Burkhalter in Yerevan.  

In his words, it was stressed at the meeting that the Switzerland-brokered agreements signed by Armenia and Turkey remain suspended now because Turkey didn’t ratify them. 

“Any way, we are thankful to Switzerland for its role in this complicated process, and I am sure that this illegal blockade should be in the spotlight of international organizations, including OSCE,” Sargsyan was quoted by Novosti-Armenia as saying at a joint news conference.   

The Armenian president also thanked Switzerland for the stance taken on the international recognition of the fact of Armenian Genocide. 

“I expressed sincere gratitude on behalf of Armenian people to the Swiss legislative institution for recognition of the Armenian Genocide and its determination to defend human values,” he said.  

Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic ties since Armenia became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991.  Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for its ally, Azerbaijan, which had a dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic Armenian enclave of Azerbaijan. 

There are several sensitive issues complicating the establishment of normal relations between the two countries, particularly Ankara’s blatant support of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process and Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians the Ottoman Empire as genocide. -0----