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YEREVAN. - The notion that we cannot live well as long as the Karabakh issue is not resolved or the blockade imposed by Turkey is not lifted is simply unacceptable. Deficiencies in our state governance don’t result from that. Deficiencies in our state governance don’t result from that.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan told the aforementioned today at the meeting with representatives of the legislative, executive and judicial powers, as well as regional and local governance bodies.

“It is certainly impossible to speak about the situation in Armenia without giving a precise evaluation of the influence of the outer world. However it is necessary to give an exact assessment of the place and the role of the signals coming from without. It is true that our immediate external environment is rough, intricate and very often extremely contradictive; the situation is aggravated by the fact that very often it is also unpredictable.

Besides, Armenia is part of the global economic system which means that we cannot evade tendencies coming from the global market. But it doesn’t mean that we have to simply accept the situation. The notion that we cannot live well as long as the Karabakh issue is not resolved or the blockade imposed by Turkey is not lifted is simply unacceptable. Deficiencies in our state governance don’t result from that,” the President said.

According to him, we all know well the approaches of the Turkish and Azerbaijani authorities. But the thing is that their years-long policy didn’t yield the results they yearned to see.

“They tried to talk to us from the position of threat, coercion, and force. It is quite unpromising to talk to us that way and this will not produce results, just as it hasn’t done so far.

Negotiations on Artsakh issue will continue. Our position is unchanged: the Artsakh issue will be resolved through the free self-determination of the people of Artsakh. All other issues are subordinate to that and will find their logical and fair solution parallel to the resolution of the problem. As long as the main problem remains and as long as the status of Artsakh remains obscure, the problem will not find its solution,” he noted.

Referring to the relations with Turkey, Sargsyan said he sees no possibility of progress at the moment.

“We have been living in these conditions for 25 years. We have already got used to these conditions and adjusted to them. We do not and will not strap the possibilities for our advancement with these problems.

We should get used to the idea that we don’t have real partners to the East from Martakert and Martuni and to the West from Gyumri and Armavir. We have lived without them until now, ensuring more or less our speed of development. Let’s imagine that there is nothing but a bottomless and unsurpassable swamp there,” the President stressed.

In his words, Armenia’s relations with Georgia and Iran are developing in good neighborly climate.

“Obviously, we have not encountered any problems there. We highly value partnership with these countries, and we will continue to work with Tbilisi and Tehran in the same spirit.

All in all, our foreign policy is predictable and has always been far from adventurism. We have always been ready to develop positive and sincere relations with all based on mutual respect, trust and interests. We have never tried to play on the contradictions of the great powers and important geopolitical centers and have never tried to get cheap and short-lived benefit from their conflicting views.

Now the time has come to make another resolute step on this strong foundation. I have instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and all our diplomatic missions abroad to take up vigorously the task of promoting Armenia’s economic interests,” Sargsyan noted. 

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