KIEV, Ukraine (Hurriyet)–Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Kiev Thursday for talks on the ongoing normalization efforts between their two countries.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Davutoglu said the one-on-one with Sarkisian gave him an opportunity to talk about the normalization process and other developments in the South Caucasus.
“We reviewed the Turkish -Armenian normalization relationship in its entirety with open hearts today including our anxieties and the obstacles we face,” Davutoglu said. “We spoke about Armenia-Azerbaijan relations and the activities of the Minsk Group as related to the Karabakh issue.”
“I also had the opportunity to tell Mr. Sarkisian about Turkey’s vision for the region,” he said.
The meeting comes as international pressure mounts on Turkey to ratify agreements signed between the two countries last October. Ankara has thus far held off on submitting the documents to parliament, demanding instead that Armenia must first agree to a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict favoring Azerbaijan.
President Sarkisian, for his part, submitted the protocols to the Armenian parliament last week but said the legislature would not ratify the documents before Turkey.
The Armenian parliament meanwhile passed legal amendments Thursday that would allow Sarkisian to suspend ratification and withdraw from previously signed international agreements. The amendments were passed by a vote of 70-4. The move comes amid growing frustration in Armenia over Turkey’s efforts to leverage the protocols in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.
Do not trust Turkey.
It would be helpful if Asbarez quoted also Armenian sources on the event along with the Turkish ones. This one I’ve read on http://www.panarmenian.net:
Serzh Sargsyan: Turkey’s engagement in Karabakh process ruled out
26.02.2010 00:09 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated that if the RA-Turkey rapprochement doesn’t come to a logical end in the shortest terms, Armenia will withdraw its signature from the Protocols.
In a talk with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Kyiv, President Sargsyan also ruled out Turkey’s engagement in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process. “A country with one-sided position on the issue can’t be a mediator. Turkey has always supported Azerbaijan in the process,” he said.
“Furthermore, a country dreaming of a region ‘without closed borders’ should first open the border it closed itself. If Azerbaijan’s pressure prevents Turkey from ratification of protocols, so nothing prevents it from opening the closed border with its neighbor,” the President said.
It’s notable that the conversation during the inauguration ceremony of Ukraine’s President- elect Viktor Yanukovych, was initiated by Turkish Foreign Minister, after the Armenian President excluded any possibility of meeting in private.
Hey Asbarez, I left a reply and it was posted as someone else. Instead of my name and email in the field; someone else’s name and email were displaying on my computer. Get your act together.