Serzh Sargsyan: Karabakh cannot be given to Azerbaijan
under any circumstances
16-04-2009 16:00:00 | Iran | Politics
TEHRAN, APRIL 16, NOYAN TAPAN. On the second day of his
official visit to IRI, on April 14, RA President Serzh Sargsyan
met with nearly 3000 representatives of the Iranian Armenian
community at the Ararat sports and concert complex.
"There are, on the one hand, warm human and, on the other
hand, practical, mutually beneficial relations between the
friendly peoples and countries of Armenia and Iran," the RA
President said assessing the negotiations within the framework
of his visit as "successful." He thanked his Iranian colleagues
for thier constructive position and readiness for all-round
development of Armenian-Iranian relations. He also expressed
gratitude to Iranian Armenians. "It is not accidental that the
emphasized positive attitude to Iranian Armenians is even
stipulated by the IRI Constitution today," the RA President
said.
S. Sargsyan also emphasized that Armenian churches, schools
and libraries, many public and spiritual centers, large Armenian
literary heritage prospered in the Iranian land and became an
integral part of Iranian spiritual-cultural heritage. It is not
accidental that in 2008 UNESCO recognized the Armenian
magnificent monuments, Saint Tadevos Apostle, Tade Church (which
is perhaps the oldest monument of early Christian world) part of
Iranian world historic heritage.
"Our duty is to establish the Armenian-Iranian wisdom of
stability and peace in the whole region," the RA President said.
He emphasized that tolerance, peace, and cooperation are not
merely ideas for the two peoples, the peoples' wisdom made those
ideas reality. According to S. Sargsyan, Armenian people's
mission to the world is clear, an Armenian should be a good
citizen of his country wherever he lives.
"We are firm in the issue of solving the problems faced by
our country," the RA President assured stating that Armenia's
position in the issue of Nagorno Karabakh peaceful settlement is
unchanged: Karabakh cannot be given to Azerbaijan under any
curcumstances. "Azerbaijan's claims to Artsakh have neither
legal nor historic and moral ground. And Nagorno Karabakh cannot
be part of Azerbaijan: in this issue Azerbaijan long ago
exhausted all supplies of confidence," S. Sargsyan stated.
Touching upon the Armenian-Turkish relations, the RA
President said: "The truth is the following: we are ready to
establish normal relations with Turkey without preconditions.
Turkey has not been ready for it so far. Now it seems that
prerequisites are created for coming out of this inadmissible
condition when the neighboring states do not have even
diplomatic relations. However, here, in this hall I should
reiterate that to establish relations with Turkey does not mean
at all to call into question the Armenian Genocide.
At the end of the meeting S. Sargsyan gave the Ararat
center the cross-paper authored by Ararat Sargsian, which is the
copy of one of Jugha cross-stones destroyed by Azeris.