Question about "genocide" surprises Armenian President

Saturday, 20 March 2010 10:37

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan was surprized with a question of a French journalist about so called Armenian genocide. Making an official visit to France last week, Sarksyan gave an interview to Euronews.

During the interview, Euronews correspondent Laura Davidescu asked, "How could Armenia honour Iranian President Mahmud Ahmedinejad in University of Yerevan in 2007 while recognition of "genocide" is a priority for Armenia? Iran does not recognize 1915 incidents as a genocide."

Being surprized for the question, Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan said, "Iran is a very important country. We honoured the leader of the country and it does not mean that the leader has to be in the same opinion with the people of the country."

Commenting on adoption of so called Armenian genocide resolution in the Foreign Affairs Committee of U.S. House of Representatives, Sarksyan said that such resolutions are voted in the Congress a few times in the last decade and adoption of the resolution is not surprizing for Armenia.

When he is reminded that the timing of resolution in the U.S. Congress was interesting since it is made during the process of Turkish-Armenian normalization, Sarksyan said, "Turkey does not have the right to accuse us or to set preconditions. Let's assume that Turkish parliament ratified the protocols and Armenian parliament did the same. And we re-established relations and afterwards a third country brought the "genocide" issue on the agenda on purpose. So what, will Turks cut the relations with us again?"