The Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process reached a stalemate, and RA President Serzh Sargsyan broke it, RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated in his interview with the Public TV of Armenia.

“The recent period has resembled an hourglass, and, as each grain of sand fell, both Armenia and the international community were losing their confidence in Turkey,” the Minister said.

As regards a coherent foreign policy, Nalbandian said: “A coherent foreign policy does not mean further blunders. Blunders must not be repeated, so the Armenian President initiated the process. And we have done what we have said – as we have repeatedly stated. We have never said what we have been unable to do.”

According to Nalbandian, this process has not impeded the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. “On the contrary, over the past month the issue has been discussed by the U.S. House of Representatives, Swiss, Catalonian and other parliaments. Of the highest importance, however, are the changes that have taken place in Turkey itself In December 2008, Turkish intellectuals started offering apologies to the Armenian people. About 35,000 joined the call. On April 24, for the first time, an event was organized in the central square of Istanbul. Things have started moving even in Turkey.”

As to whether the mediators can hold occasional discussions of the issue, with Turkey taking advantage of them to show the world it allegedly negotiates with Armenia, Minister Nalbandian said: “Armenia will never participate in any process for the sake of the process itself. We initiated the process and conducted negotiations, initialed and later signed the protocols, which are now awaiting ratification. Of course, the question is when it will happen, but I do not see any need for new talks. I remember, last May, the Turkish side, dissatisfied with the contents of the protocols, tried to start new negotiations. They made several proposals. What does that mean? We have conducted talks, let us launch new talks; now we sign now we do not; now we ratify now we do not. It is not a thing to be trifled with! In the morning they say they can ratify the protocols within three days, in the evening they say they cannot. The next morning they say they respect the pacta sunt servanda principle. How can we understand it? ‘We are not mediators between Armena and Azerbaijan, but we want to negotiate with you to settle issues.’ ‘No preconditions,’ they say, but ‘do this and that, and we start ratification.’ We are speaking different languages, one can hardly understand their language.”

T.P.