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TWO ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS ADDRESS CYPRUS PARLIAMENT TURKISH-ARMENIAN RAPPROCHEMENT "DESTROYED" SAYS SARGSYAN
Gibrahayer
Thursday 13 January 2011
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan denounced the current Turkish
government's assertive foreign policy as "neo-Ottoman" imperialist
designs aimed at forcing Turkey's neighbors into submission.
17.01.2011 - Emil Danielyan - Azadutiun - President Sargsyan accused
Turkey of reversing its rapprochement with Armenia and voiced strong
opposition to Ankara's perceived efforts to take on a leadership role
in the region as he paid a state visit to Cyprus on Monday.
In a speech delivered in the Cyprus Parliament, Sargsyan also
condemned continuing Turkish occupation of a big chunk of the island
and unequivocally endorsed its Greek-dominated government's position
on the unresolved conflict.
"With its contradictory posture, inconsistent statements and groundless
manipulation of the [Turkish-Armenian normalization] process, Turkey
destroyed it," he said. "Turkey backed away from its commitments and
not only failed to ratify the signed protocols but also reverted to
its old positions adopted before the process."
Sargsyan denounced the current Turkish government's assertive foreign
policy as "neo-Ottoman" imperialist designs aimed at forcing Turkey's
neighbors into submission. "What had the Ottoman Empire given the
peoples under its yoke apart from massacres, tyranny and plunder?" he
said.
"A country that has kept the border with Armenia closed since its
independence under different pretexts and has been blackmailing my
people can not aspire to regional leadership," he declared.
The unusually scathing remarks reflected Sargsyan's frustration
with Turkey's refusal to unconditionally ratify the Turkish-Armenian
protocols envisaging the establishment of diplomatic relations between
the two neighboring states and the opening of their border. Ankara
has made that contingent on a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.
Addressing Greek-Cypriot lawmakers, Sargsyan said that Yerevan has
never set any preconditions for normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations
despite having "more than sufficient moral and legal grounds" to do
that. He singled out successive Armenian governments' readiness to
improve bilateral ties without Turkish recognition of the World War
One-era massacres in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
The Armenian leader emphasized the fact that the Cypriot Parliament was
one of the first legislatures to pass in 1982 a resolution recognizing
the genocide. He went to express his country's solidarity with the
Greek Cypriots in their decades-long conflict with the Turks.
"Armenia has never accepted and will never accept any attempt to
partition brotherly Cyprus," Sargsyan declared. "We have never come
and will never come to terms with the occupation of this friendly
country's north."
"Armenians and Cypriots are not only friends and brothers but also
natural allies, and we are faithful to that alliance," he said.
A joint declaration issued with Cyprus President Demetris Christofias
after their talks in Nicosia, Sargsyan likewise hailed the Greek
Cypriots' "creative approach" to the conflict's resolution and faulted
Turkey for "not duly responding to these steps." Official Nicosia,
for its part, praised Armenia's "constructive efforts" to settle the
Karabakh conflict.
From: A. Papazian
Gibrahayer
Thursday 13 January 2011
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan denounced the current Turkish
government's assertive foreign policy as "neo-Ottoman" imperialist
designs aimed at forcing Turkey's neighbors into submission.
17.01.2011 - Emil Danielyan - Azadutiun - President Sargsyan accused
Turkey of reversing its rapprochement with Armenia and voiced strong
opposition to Ankara's perceived efforts to take on a leadership role
in the region as he paid a state visit to Cyprus on Monday.
In a speech delivered in the Cyprus Parliament, Sargsyan also
condemned continuing Turkish occupation of a big chunk of the island
and unequivocally endorsed its Greek-dominated government's position
on the unresolved conflict.
"With its contradictory posture, inconsistent statements and groundless
manipulation of the [Turkish-Armenian normalization] process, Turkey
destroyed it," he said. "Turkey backed away from its commitments and
not only failed to ratify the signed protocols but also reverted to
its old positions adopted before the process."
Sargsyan denounced the current Turkish government's assertive foreign
policy as "neo-Ottoman" imperialist designs aimed at forcing Turkey's
neighbors into submission. "What had the Ottoman Empire given the
peoples under its yoke apart from massacres, tyranny and plunder?" he
said.
"A country that has kept the border with Armenia closed since its
independence under different pretexts and has been blackmailing my
people can not aspire to regional leadership," he declared.
The unusually scathing remarks reflected Sargsyan's frustration
with Turkey's refusal to unconditionally ratify the Turkish-Armenian
protocols envisaging the establishment of diplomatic relations between
the two neighboring states and the opening of their border. Ankara
has made that contingent on a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.
Addressing Greek-Cypriot lawmakers, Sargsyan said that Yerevan has
never set any preconditions for normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations
despite having "more than sufficient moral and legal grounds" to do
that. He singled out successive Armenian governments' readiness to
improve bilateral ties without Turkish recognition of the World War
One-era massacres in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
The Armenian leader emphasized the fact that the Cypriot Parliament was
one of the first legislatures to pass in 1982 a resolution recognizing
the genocide. He went to express his country's solidarity with the
Greek Cypriots in their decades-long conflict with the Turks.
"Armenia has never accepted and will never accept any attempt to
partition brotherly Cyprus," Sargsyan declared. "We have never come
and will never come to terms with the occupation of this friendly
country's north."
"Armenians and Cypriots are not only friends and brothers but also
natural allies, and we are faithful to that alliance," he said.
A joint declaration issued with Cyprus President Demetris Christofias
after their talks in Nicosia, Sargsyan likewise hailed the Greek
Cypriots' "creative approach" to the conflict's resolution and faulted
Turkey for "not duly responding to these steps." Official Nicosia,
for its part, praised Armenia's "constructive efforts" to settle the
Karabakh conflict.
From: A. Papazian