PROBLEMS BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY CAN BE SOLVED ONLY THROU

[MosJan]

PROBLEMS BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY CAN BE SOLVED ONLY THROUGH INTER-STATE DIALOGUE, FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN SAYS

YEREVAN, AUGUST 2, ARMENPRESS: Armenpress news agency has asked a spokeswoman for Armenian foreign ministry Ms. Dziunik Aghajanian to express foreign ministry's position over a statement, issued by political groups holding the majority of seats in the Armenian parliament at the initiative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party, which came as a response to the creation earlier this month of an unofficial Turkish-Armenian reconciliation commission comprising retired senior diplomats from the two neighboring countries and representatives of the Armenian Diaspora.

Ms. Aghajanian said: "It is noteworthy that the political forces holding the majority in the parliament have assumed a unified position over the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation commission. We believe that opinions voiced in the statement, as well as other opinions made public so far will be taken into account by the commission.

At the same time we would like to express our concern over the fact that Armenian-genocide related issues which are of all-national importance and have always been a uniting factor in both Armenia proper and Diaspora can split the united Armenian front and suspend the Armenian genocide recognition process.

We are once again reiterating that such dialogues or discussions cannot deviate Armenian authorities from consistently pursuing and realizing the process of Armenian genocide recognition, one of the priorities on the agenda of the country's foreign policy.

It should also be definitely pointed out that any attempt of seeking a second way or people's diplomacy cannot replace state-level discussions and all existing problems between Armenia and Turkey can be solved only through an inter-state dialogue."