Epress.am News from Armenia
Azerbaijan does not agree with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s statements regarding the Armenian Genocide an the opening of the Armenia-Turkey border, said head of the public and political department of Azerbaijan’s presidential administration Ali Hasanov.
“Each of these issues is a specific aspect of international politics. Azerbaijan has always supported Turkey’s interests in processes taking place in the South Caucasus, as well as in international affairs,” he said, reports Baku-based news agency Trend.
According to Hasanov, Baku doesn’t share the French government’s position, which include Sarkozy’s statements on the Armenian Genocide and the opening of the Armenia-Turkey borders.
Recall, Sarkozy urged Turkey on Friday to recognize the First World War-era massacres of Armenians as genocide before his term ends in May 2012.
“From 1915 to 2011, it seems to be enough [time] for reflection,” Sarkozy told reporters in Yerevan on the second day of his visit to Armenia.
Speaking alongside his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan, Sarkozy noted, however, that “it is not up to France to give an ultimatum to anyone.”
Sarkozy on Thursday urged Turkey to “revisit its history” over the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, calling its refusal to recognize the deaths as genocide “unacceptable,” AFP reports.
The French president said that if Turkey did not make this “gesture of peace” and “step towards reconciliation,” he would consider proposing the adoption of a law criminalizing denial of the killings as genocide.