“Armenian-American relations over the past few years have developed significantly,” Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in an interview with The New York Times.
“The numerous visits and meetings at all levels of our administrations are proof of that. These meetings have not only increased in terms of number, but their content has become richer with every meeting. We interact closely across the international arena, covering regional and international security, nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the fight against all forms of terrorism, peacekeeping operations and other global challenges,” he said.
“After years of supporting peacekeeping in Kosovo and the International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan, Armenia is going to continue its contribution in supporting global security,” the Minister added.
“Raising awareness of not only the Armenian genocide, but of other crimes against humanity and genocides is vital for the prevention of such crimes. As a nation that survived the first genocide of the 20th century, we feel a strong moral responsibility to contribute to international efforts in prevention of such crimes.” Edward Nalbandian said.
According to him, “denial and impunity paves the way for the repetition of new crimes against humanity. Independent of geopolitical or other interests, the international community should stand together in the recognition, condemnation and punishment of past genocides, for the sake of their future prevention.”
“The commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide is an important step toward its international recognition and condemnation, but it is not an endpoint. It marks a new beginning in the context of joint efforts to prevent history repeating itself,” Minister Nalbandian said.
Speaking about the perspective of Armenian-Turkish normalization, the Foreign Minister said: “The Armenian-Turkish normalization efforts, initiated by the president of Armenia in 2008, were summarized five years ago in Zurich, when we signed the Armenian-Turkish protocols. But soon Turkey backtracked, returning to its initial language of preconditions. If the Turkish side considers that it could reanimate today obstacles to the normalization process, it acts in vain and without perspective. This is something I told the Turkish foreign minister in Yerevan in December. Our position, shared by the entire international community, is the normalization of relations without any preconditions.”
Minister Nalbandian said the membership in the Eurasian Economic Union will grant new opportunities to Armenia in terms of boosting competitiveness in our main export markets and increasing our export volumes, further enhancing and deepening our economic relations with the member states of the Union, as well as encouraging direct investments from those states into our country.
