Karen Ghazaryan
Public Radio of Armenia
“Turkey must recognize the Armenian Genocide,” French President Francoise Hollande said at a joint press conference with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan.
The French President reconfirmed he will visit Armenia on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
“This is a call to the world to prevent recurrence of such tragedies in the future,” he said.
“With this visit France will once again reiterate its position that all genocides should be condemned,” Hollande said.
Speaking about the Karabakh issue, President Hollande said: “As a Minsk Group co-chairing country, France is ready to do its best to find a solution to the issue. Although there is a ceasefire agreement, it’s not enough. A thorough solution is needed,” he said.
Francois Hollande added that France is ready to host a meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to help find confidence-building measures.
There have been fears in the recent period that the confrontation between the East and the West could negatively affect the cooperation between the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and their shared stance on the issue, which would, in turn, result in the reconsideration and change of their positions.
Commenting on this, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said: ” The Co-Chairs have said on many occasions that they have a united stance, which implies that the status of Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be determined through a legally binding free expression of will of the people. There is no alternative to the realization of the principle of self determination,” President Sargsyan said.
He added that the approach was recently reiterated by US Co-Chair James Warlick. “He didn’t say anything new. He reconfirmed what his President had said on many occasions. The same approach was reflected in the statement of the Co-Chairs on the 20th anniversary of the ceasefire agreement,” he said, adding that “Azerbaijan’s attempts to interpret the approaches in a different way are doomed to fail.”
