President Serzh Sargsyan has said in Nicosia that Armenia is not against Turkey's EU membership, but harshly criticized Ankara and Baku.
He made the more positive comments during a joint press conference with the Head of Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias in Nicosia on Monday.
"Armenia does not mind Turkey joining the European Union. At the same time we are sured that Turkey will not be able to make its way towards the European Union without facing its past and establishing constructive relations with its immediate neighbours,” Serzh Sargsyan said.
Touching upon the prospects for the settlement of the Karabakh and Cyprus issues, the Armenian president said that "diplomats of the two countries – Armenia and Southern Cyprus – believe that every conflict should be solved taking into consideration its historic peculiarities”.
“That is why we support each other’s positions and do not think that the principles of territorial integrity and the right of peoples to self-determination contradict each other,” he continued.
Southern Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias said that Southern Cyprus supported the OSCE Minsk Group in its work to find a settlement to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
“I would like to tell President Sargsyan of our support for the Minsk Group in reaching a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through peace and international law,” Christofias said.
Address to parliament
President Sargsyan came down hard on both Azerbaijan and Turkey in an address to the Cypriot parliament yesterday.
He began by praising Armenia's relations with Cyprus.
"Cyprus is a place that is dear to the hearts and minds of the Armenian people," Sargsyan said. "This marvellous island is one of the unique countries in which Armenians have never been considered strangers from ancient times; rather, Armenians lived and worked in this country and, whenever necessary, took up arms to fight the enemies of this country."
Sargsyan said that the fact that an ethnic Armenian, Marios Garoyian, was chairman of the House of Representatives was a sign of the integration of the Armenian community in Cyprus.
He aslo said that Parliament of Southern Cyprus was among the first in the world to recognize so called Armenian genocide.
"Our peoples, who passed through the crucible, are still facing problems. Unfortunately, in this most civilized era of human history, there are still forces and statesmen that have not abandoned the archaic way of thinking and the invader's psychology, confident that even today 'the strongest will dictate'. Hence, we have to multiply our common efforts to achieve just solutions for our causes and peace for our peoples,” Sargsyan said.
"In this respect, I would like to speak of the vital issues for Armenia and all Armenians, the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh and the current stalemate in the Armenia-Turkey relationship. Speaking about these issues is important because in the modern era of information technology misinformation very often quickly overshadows the truth."
He set out the Armenian view of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and said that Karabakh could not be part of Azerbaijan.
Rapprochement with Turkey
On the stalled rapprochement process with Turkey, Sargsyan accused Turkey of destroying the process. “Turkey stepped back from its commitments and not only failed to ratify the signed protocols, but also returned to its pre-normalization position. Our efforts and the efforts of our colleagues actively engaged in the process faced a wall of preconditions,” he said.
Sources: Public Radio of Armenia, Panorama, Tert
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