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Obama Backs Sarkisian Efforts On Armenia-Turkey Thaw

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  • Obama Backs Sarkisian Efforts On Armenia-Turkey Thaw

    OBAMA BACKS SARKISIAN EFFORTS ON ARMENIA-TURKEY THAW

    Asbarez
    http://www.asbarez.com/2009/10/06/ob ama-backs-sarkisian-efforts-on-armenia-turkey-thaw /
    Oct 6th, 2009

    WASHINGTON (RFE/RL)-U.S. President Barack Obama expressed his support
    for the Armenian leader's efforts to achieve normalization of relations
    with Turkey as the two spoke on the phone recently.

    As reported by the Armenian president's press office, the phone
    conversation took place during President Serzh Sarkisian's stop
    in Los Angeles, California, where he was on Sunday as part of his
    continuing tour of major Diaspora Armenian communities to discuss
    his latest initiative for Armenia to end the century-old feud with
    its big neighbor and historical foe, Turkey.

    Obama reportedly reaffirmed the United States' official position that
    Armenian-Turkish normalization should proceed without any preconditions
    and should not be linked to the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
    conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

    During the phone talk with Obama, Sarkisian also reportedly thanked the
    U.S. president for "the huge mediatory work" conducted by the United
    States as part of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security
    and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that advances international efforts
    on settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As reported by his press
    office, Sarkisian emphasized Armenia's readiness to move forward on
    the way of achieving a peaceful settlement of the problem. He said the
    basis of this settlement should be "the decision by Nagorno-Karabakh's
    people about their ultimate legal status by the free expression
    of will, which is the basis of the Madrid principles of settlement
    presented by the Minsk Group mediators."

    Sarkisian was quoted as expressing his gratitude to the U.S. leader
    for the support in the process of Armenian-Turkish normalization and
    also as presenting his impressions of the Diaspora tour.

    According to the release for the media, the Armenian president
    emphasized that "the concerns and fears of the Armenian Diaspora
    regarding the process are natural, considering the fact that the
    Armenian people was subjected to genocide by Ottoman Turkey, about
    which Obama has repeatedly mentioned in his public speeches."

    Sarkisian last week embarked on a weeklong tour of major Diaspora
    communities, including Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Beirut
    and Rostov-on-Don, to try and gain support for the beleaguered
    Turkey-Armenia Protocols, which have been met with resounding rebuke
    by Armenians around the world. Sarkisian has already completed his
    meetings with prominent Diaspora members in Europe and the United
    States and is in Lebanon now, after which he will fly to Southern
    Russia.

    More than 12,000 Armenian Americans from throughout California
    converged on the Beverly Hilton Hotel to protest Sarkisian on
    Sunday. Hundreds more gathered at the Genocide Memorial in Montebello
    the next morning to stand guard the monument in the case Sarkisian
    attempted to use the site for a photo-opp. Thousands similarly
    protested the president when he visited New York, forming a picket
    line at his hotel. The mass demonstrations against the president
    began in Paris Friday, where a thousand Armenians who were holding
    a peaceful sit-in at the Gomidas genocide memorial were violently
    attacked by Police, clearing the way for Sarkisian to walk u to the
    statue to get his photo taken.
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