YEREVAN. – President of France Nicolas Sarkozy in the interview to Mediamax news agency expressed hope that the process on establishing relations and opening border between Armenia and Turkey will resume soon.

“The Protocols on establishing diplomatic relations and opening the border between Turkey and Armenia aroused many hopes. This reconciliation process has reached a deadlock today, which I deeply regret,” he said.

According to Sarkozy, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan “exhibited wisdom and foresight” saying the next day after one of meetings in Paris that Armenia is ready to ratify the Protocols when Turkey is ready for it.

“I hope the process will resume soon,” Sarkozy added.

As reported earlier, the Turkish Grand National Assembly has recently withdrawn the Armenia-Turkey Protocols from its agenda.

In October 10, 2009, in Zurich, Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Turkey signed the “Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations” and “Protocol for the development of bilateral relations”, which needed to be ratified by the parliaments of the two countries. However, this did not happen.

The signing ceremony was attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and France Bernard Kouchner, as well as Secretary General of the Council of the European Union Javier Solana. The signing ceremony was at the center of the world’s attention, broadcast on 70 TV channels.

However, on December 7, 2009, Turkey linked the Armenian-Turkish process to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. During a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara would not ratify the Armenian-Turkish protocols without resolution of the Karabakh conflict. On April 22, 2010, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree suspending the ratification process.