CoE Secretary General hopes for sooner resumption of Armenia-Turkey normalization process.
The process between Armenia and Turkey should penetrate deeply into the two countries' public conscience, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland said in an interview with ArmInfo.
According to him, CE has no mandate in this issue and no party applied to the organization to assign a specific role in the rapprochement process.
T.Jagland said it fully depends on the two countries' parliaments to make the next step and ratify the Protocols. He also said they can discuss, affect the parties, however, this is a historical process which should penetrate deeply into the conscience of the two countries' peoples. CE Secretary General thinks that the process of ratification is complicated since it is connected with rapprochement of the two peoples which were separated for a long period of time. Therefore, as he said, the process must initially gain deep roots in the two countries' peoples, and this should be done by the parties themselves.
Armenia-Turkey closed border is entirely a national task, and the countries decide for themselves how to assure protection of their borders, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland said when commenting on the attitude of the Council of Europe to preservation of a closed border by one CE member-state of another's.
According to him, it is important for both countries to move towards development of democracy and protection of human rights. T.Jagland said this issue always covers the issue of creating confidence-building measures, common values and standards.
When speaking of how CE may contribute to creation of confidence-building measures, Jagland said the Council of Europe has no direct role since the parties did not ask the organization to interfere.
According to him, they play an indirect role, they lead both countries in one direction, to the common standards and commitments, that helps the peoples to "join" towards common values. This is a slow process. However, CE Secretary General is sure that it will help in the long term.
CoE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland hopes for sooner resumption of Armenia-Turkey normalization process. Jagland said that he hopes for a progress in the given process.
"The Protocols are waiting for ratification. I have to admit that I see no positive alarms at present but the situation may change. It is a fact that the Protocols are on the table and the next step must be done for the relations to get to the next level," he said.
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