The meeting between RA President Serzh Sargsyan and Turkish Premier Recep Erdogan once more proved that Turkey and Azerbaijan not only display a unanimous approach to everything, but are actually one state, Hrair Karapetyan, the Chairman of the Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs and member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) (ARF(D)), told a press conference.

According to him, at the Washington meeting the sides reaffirmed their positions – the RA President reaffirmed Armenia’s commitment to establishing relations with Turkey without any preconditions, as well as the impossibility of linking the Armenian-Turkish process to the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. As regards the Turkish Premier, he set preconditions to the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols, linking it to the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and the issue of Armenian Genocide. “The international community, first of all U.S. President Barack Obama, must draw necessary conclusions from the Sargsyan-Erdogan meeting in Washington and come to realize that Turkey will not give up its position,” Karapetyan said. He pointed out that, with this position considered, Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora must be more firmly united. In this context he welcomed the Armenian leader’s speech at the Washington National Cathedral, when he ruled out any split between Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora. “The Armenian President’s speech was based on the principles incorporated in the national security concept,” Karapetyan said.

As regard the possibility of the ARF changing its attitude to the authorities due to the Armenian leader’s speeches, Karapetyan stated: “The ARF will continue as part of the opposition camp, as the party is discontent with not only the Armenian authorities’ foreign policy, but also domestic and socio-economic policies.”

T.P.