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  • Sarkisian Urged To Visit Turkey

    SARKISIAN URGED TO VISIT TURKEY
    Ruben Meloyan

    Armenialiberty.org
    http://www.azatutyun.a m/content/article/1793316.html
    Aug 5 2009

    A prominent Armenian opposition politician urged President Serzh
    Sarkisian on Wednesday to visit Turkey for the second football match
    of the two countries' national football teams, saying that failure to
    accept his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul's invitation would be an
    "absolute stupidity."

    "In my opinion, going [to Turkey] would be the right thing because
    even with your enemy you have a normal enmity," said Hrant Bagratian,
    a former prime minister and senior member of the main opposition
    Armenian National Congress (HAK).

    "We have no right to feel vexed," he told reporters. "On the line
    are the interests of the state."

    Sarkisian made clear late last month that he will not travel to
    Turkey and watch the October 14 match with Gul unless Ankara takes
    "real steps" to reopen the Turkish-Armenian border. He said the two
    governments agreed on border opening during their year-long dialogue
    that gained momentum with Gul's historic September 2008 trip to
    Yerevan.

    "It was a boyish statement," said Bagratian. "Himself started the
    process. Why is he antagonizing [the Turks] now?"

    The HAK's top leader, Levon Ter-Petrosian, and his close associates
    have repeatedly denounced Sarkisian's policy on Turkey as a gross
    failure. Ter-Petrosian has accused Sarkisian of willingly sacrificing
    U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide while failing to secure
    the lifting of the Turkish economic blockade of Armenia.

    Levon Zurabian, the HAK's central office coordinator, reaffirmed
    the criticism on Tuesday. "Turkey has achieved its goal at Armenia's
    expense," he said.

    Bagratian appeared more sympathetic to the Turkish-Armenian
    rapprochement, even if he described as a "serious blunder" Sarkisian's
    apparent acceptance of a Turkish proposal to form a joint commission
    that would look into the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman
    Empire. "I think Turkey committed a mistake in April-May by violating
    agreements [reached with Armenia,]" he said.

    Sarkisian said last week that those agreements envisaged the
    normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations regardless of a resolution
    of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Turkish leaders, however, have
    repeatedly stated in recent months that their country will not
    establish diplomatic relations and reopen its border with Armenia
    before a Karabakh settlement.
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