Nalbandyan’s speech at the National Assembly
"Armenia has been ready for normalization of relations with Turkey without preconditions ever since its declaration of independence and what we're doing now is turning Armenia's long-awaited wish into a reality," announced RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan during hearings on Turkish-Armenian relations at the National Assembly today.
"Turkish-Armenian relations are not merely bilateral political relations and they include issues that have the impact of historical, moral-psychological and other factors.
I would first set aside Turkey's position after Armenia's independence, which is closed borders, unestablished relations due to Turkish-Azerbaijani relations and as a result, Turkey's pro-Azerbaijani position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," said Nalbandyan.
Nalbandyan tried to respond to the concerns and allegations from the NA podium.
"Are there preconditions? Are we doubting the fact of genocide? Are we impeding the international recognition of Armenian Genocide? Is there a relation beteen the pre-signed documents and the talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh? No, no and once again, no.
The international community views the issue of Armenian Genocide not from the angle of Turkish-Armenian relations, but universal values and includes all kinds of issues such as human rights and prevention of genocide as the heaviest crime against humanity. I have touched upon that during my speech at the UN General Assemly two days ago.
The claims that the issue of genocide will be limited to an issue between two states and will lose its universal significance if Turkey and Armenia engage in dialogue, are false. We are also sure that the pre-signed document doesn't serve as a basis to doubt that the Armenian people are being deprived of the right to fight for historical justice.
As far as the talks on Nagorno-Karabakh and the allegation that it is connected to the pre-signed documents are concerned, the preconditions, let alone the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, is not even mentioned in the documents.
The president has declared that several times and I have touched upon that in my official statement made in response to the Turkish Prime Minister's statement, as cited: "The Turkish side is aware and, we are sure, it realizes that we exclude the conditioning of Turkish-Armenian relations with the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."
This is not only the fundamental approach of the Armenian authoriites, but the international community. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries have also spoken about that several times. After my meeting with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the latter reaffirmed the US position on the above mentioned and the Co-Chairs issued a statement on that today," said the Foreign Minister.
Nalbandyan ended his speech by making a reference to the opening remarks of Serzh Sargsyan during the meeting with political parties.
"Turkey and Armenia have many issues to solve...Let us understand who is going to do what and what we all are going to do together. I think that this is the most important."
