Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
April 14 2005
Armenian President: Armenia Has No Territorial Claim Now, Future
Presidents Will
JTW – Armenian President Robert Kocharian said `Armenia has no
territorial claims to Turkey’, yet Kocharian surprisingly implied
that the future Armenian leaders may deal with the `territorial
demands’.
Meeting with Armenian university students on Monday, Kocharian
repeated that Yerevan has no territorial claims to Turkey and urged
Armenians to be more `realistic’ in their demands.
`None of our state bodies has ever raised any territorial issues,’
Kocharian added.
Kocharian said `on our agenda today is the issue of genocide
recognition. Future presidents and future politicians will deal with
legal consequences of that.’ Turkish Caucasus expert Dr. Nilgun
Gulcan said `there is a strong threat behind these words. Kocharian
says that we have no territorial demands for now. But the future
Armenian presidents will naturally have’.
Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan wrote to Kocharian to establish a joint
dialogue commission to discuss the historical debates and to improve
relations between Turkey and Armenia. However the Yerevan Government
immediately rejected thye offer. Kocharian had refused to join the
NATO Istanbul meeting despite of the official invitation from Turkish
Government in 20044
Armenian National Independence Declaration name Turkey’s east
`Western Armenia’. Many Armenian parties argue that Armenia will
capture the lost territories (Turkey’s eastern provinces). Tashnaks
in particular declared the next targets for Armenians to occupy will
be Turkey’s east, south-east Georgia and Nahcivan of Azerbaijain.
JTW