Armenian Prime Minister hopes for passage of U.S. Armenian Genocide resolution

PanARMENIAN.Net - "We hope that the U.S. Congress will pass Armenian Genocide resolution," Armenia's Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan said at a reception in the Armenian Embassy in Washington.



He said that he has had other issues including economic and security cooperation to discuss with U.S. officials in meetings that began last week. He said that Armenia has tried to stay out of a U.S. political debate.



The Associated Press notes that Turkey has lobbied intensively against the resolution, while Armenian-American groups have pressed for its passage.



The resolution did not come up in talks last week with U.S. officials including Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Robert Gates or in a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sargsyan said. After a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday, the State Department said that the two had discussed a joint economic task force aimed in part at monitoring economic reform in Armenia.



The RA PM said that he believes that the resolution is being held up in Congress because of Turkish pressure not because there is disagreement in the House of Representatives over whether the Genocide took place.



"So there is nothing to discuss," he said in an interview at the Armenian Embassy. "We are convinced that the Armenian Genocide occurred and that the sooner the Turks admit this, the better for both the Armenians and the Turks."



Sargsyan's trip comes at a time that relations between Washington and Ankara have reached a recent low, as Turkey has protested the congressional foray into a sensitive historical matter.



Turkey has also said that passage of the resolution would undermine hopes of improving relations with Armenia. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 during a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a Muslim ally of Ankara. The countries currently have no diplomatic relations.



"I don't understand what the Turks are saying," Sargsyan said. "We have no relations now. We cannot harm something that is non existent."



But he said that resolving the historical dispute over the killings of Armenians should not hold up efforts to restore relations.



"It is not a precondition for re-establishing relations between the two states," he said.

He said that he expected to discuss with Rice efforts to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.