YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Opening of the Armenian-Turkish border does not depend on Armenia, President Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview to Sputnik Armenia, speaking about the question whether there is an opportunity to improve the relations of Armenia and Turkey.

“Unfortunately, this question also must be addressed not to me. Back in 2008, we proposed Turkey to make the negotiations process public, which was proceeding slowly, and in 2009 we reached the signing of the two protocols. In the presence of foreign ministers of three permanent member states of the UN Security Council, we signed these two protocols in Zurich, but regretfully, some time later it became clear that Turkey is not ready to ratify the protocols and actually are not ready to establish relations with Armenia without pre-conditions.  They began propounding preconditions – let Armenia convince Nagorno Karabakh, that it surrenders even only one, as they put it “occupied” region. Meaning, a part of the security zone. At that time, the Turks will be ready to establish relations, open the border. Since we agreed, and it is clearly stated in the two protocols, that we are establishing relations without preliminary conditions, at that time we said: “Sorry, that could have been spoken about prior to the signing, that is, during the negotiations process”, the President said.

According to him, after that Armenia has no relations whatsoever with Turkey. Serzh Sargsyan noted that if they meet during international conferences, they only greet each other.

The President responded positively to the reporter’s observation that in any case it is necessary to move forward.

“Of course, what else to do, tell me. Yes, until 2009 several of our friends were speaking about the fact that we have the Genocide issue, that we simply do not want to establish any relations with the Turks, as long as they haven’t recognized the Armenian Genocide. But we went for it. Can you understand my situation at that time, when I toured almost the entire world, meeting with representatives of the Armenian Diaspora?

Thousands of Armenians are protesting against the president of Armenia in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Beirut, demanding not to sign those protocols. I was working, convincing, asking. As a result, we signed, but they are not realizing their obligations. What else to do? Yield and say : “Yes, let’s surrender the security zone to Azerbaijan”, and Turkey will open the borders. And then? Three months, 1 and a half year, three years later some conflict will happen, and it will close it again. It doesn’t depend on us. I always say, any wedding and creating of a family requires the agreement of the two. Here you can’t say, that the issue is solved 50%, this isn’t the case. In this regard nothing depends on us”, President Sargsyan said.