Today Edward Nalbandian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia also mentioned the bill banning the denial of the Armenian Genocide, passed by the French National Assembly as an achievement of year 2011 during a press conference.
During a conversation with Aravot.am, we told the minister that Turkologists assured in this regard that it had been a shot made not by our government at all and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia had had nothing to do with it. The minister asked to be careful and avoided any comments in this regard, since that bill is on the Senate’s agenda and any careless word could harm the process.
Commenting on the statements made by Turkey in regard to passing the bill, Mr. Nalbandian noted, “The arguments voiced by the Turkish side, I would say, they are rather weak, to say the least, they are empty arguments. When they say that this process or this bill can harm the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, first of all, one has nothing to do with the other and if there is something that prevents the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, the international community knows that, it is the attitude of the Turkish side and that is the reason why they say that the ball is in the Turkish court. The arguments as if there are some economic interests in Turkey and if this bill is passed, it can impede the role Turkey could have played in this or that regional issue, I think it smells corruption, i.e. it is not only blackmail, but they also want to buy with something. However, first and foremost, this bill is in pursuance of the circular decision made by the Council of Europe on November 28, 2008 and I don’t think that universal values can be subjected to any arguments, in particular, such as the Turkish side voices.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
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