RF NOT TRY TO MEDIATE ARMENIAN-TURKISH SETTLEMENT – LUKASHEVICH
ITAR-TASS, Russia
October 27, 2011 Thursday 07:29 PM EST
Russia is not trying to mediate the settlement of Armenian-Turkish
relations, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said
on Thursday.
Answering a question if it is possible to consider the telephone
conversation between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan and their Turkish colleague an attempt to
mediate the normalisation of Armenian-Turkish relations, Lukashevich
said, “As I know Dmitry Medvedev and Serzh Sargsyan phoned their
Turkish colleague to express condolences on the devastating earthquake
that hit the country and convey their support. I wouldn’t interpret
these words as the readiness to mediate in the normalisation of
relations.”
Armenian-Turkish protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations
and on the principles of bilateral relations between the two countries
were signed on October 12 in Zurich, Switzerland, by the Armenian and
Turkish foreign ministers in the presence of the foreign ministers
of Russia and France, Sergei Lavrov and Bernard Kouchner, as ell as
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.