June 16, 2011 - 14:46 AMT
Armenia definite about Karabakh and relations with Turkey, PM says

Armenian leadership has a political will to move on to an agreement in the issue of Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan has said.

“We realize that it is not easy but we hope that Azerbaijan will demonstrate a political will as well”, the PM told CNN's John Defterios in an interview, when commenting on progress perspectives and expectations from the meeting between Presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan scheduled for May 25 in Kazan, Russia.

As regards the relations with Turkey, Mr. Sargsyan noted that over the past 20 years Armenia has had a very clear political position on this issue. “We are ready to normalize our relations with our neighbor – Turkey, without any pre-conditions. However the recent events show that Turkey is not ready to do the same,” the Prime Minister said.

On May 26, on the sidelines of G8 summit in Deauville, Presidents of Russia, U.S. and France adopted a joint statement on the Karabakh conflict settlement and urged the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to “prepare population for peace, but not war,” as well as “finalize works on basic principles for the settlement during the upcoming meeting in June.”