Washington : Armenia, Turkey and Bilateral meetings

* Serzh Sargsyan and Hillary Clinton


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President Serzh Sargsyan had a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. The interlocutors discussed the perspectives of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey.

Secretary Clinton reiterated US President Barack Obama's call to continue the process of establishment of relations without preconditions.

Serzh Sargsyan and Hillary Clinton discussed issues related to bilateral Armenian-American relations, as well as the settlement of the Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The same day President Sargsyan met Congressman Adam Schiff. During the conversation Serzh Sargsyan expressed gratitude for Mr. Schiff's efforts towards recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the US Congress, as well as for his support to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.

* Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov


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The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Russia Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov had a meeting in Washington on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit.

The meeting covered a number of issues on bilateral agenda.

The interlocutors touched upon the cooperation between the two countries within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group and exchanged views on the situation in the region, including the process of settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

* Edward Nalbandian and Ahmet Davutoglu


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Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Turkey Edward Nalbandian and Ahmet Davutoglu had a conversation during a working lunch, hosted by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the honor of Foreign Ministers attending the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.

The conversation focused on the continuation of yesterday's discussions of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Turkish Prime-Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

* Serzh Sargsyan and AAA


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Earlier in the day, Sarkisian had a separate meeting with the leadership of the Armenian Assembly of America, the other major U.S.-Armenian lobby group. The Assembly has been a key Diaspora backer of his conciliatory line on Turkey and, in particular, the Turkish-Armenian normalization protocols signed last October.

“We have supported and continue to support reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey,” the Assembly said in a statement. It at the same time charged that the Turkish government “has breached and will continue to breach both the letter and the spirit of those documents.”

* Serzh Sargsyan and ANCA-ARF


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President Serzh Sargsyan's visit to the United States continues. On the sidelines of the global security summit in Washington President Sargsyan had a meeting with members of the Armenian National Committee of America.

The meeting covered issues connected with the preservation of the Armenian national identity, the Armenia-Diaspora relations and the role of the Diaspora structures in the strengthening of those relations.

The interlocutors also touched upon the current stage of normalization of the Armenian-turkish relations, President's Press Office reported.

The presidential press office said Sarkisian discussed “the current phase” of the Turkish-Armenian normalization process with top representatives of U.S. chapters of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) and the nationalist party's lobbying arm in the United States, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

A statement by the office gave no details of that discussion. It said the meeting also focused on Armenia's relations with its worldwide Diaspora and ways of strengthening it.

Among the participants of Monday's meeting with Sarkisian was Viken Hovsepian, a member of Dashnaktsutyun's worldwide governing Bureau. Speaking to the Boston-based newspaper “Armenian Weekly” before the meeting, Hovsepian urged the Armenian leader to “rescind his signature from the Turkey-Armenia protocols.”

Dashnaktsutyun and several Armenian-American community groups voiced the same demand in a joint letter to Sarkisian published ahead of his arrival in Washington. “We hope and expect … that while in Washington, you will announce that the process between Armenia and Turkey that has begun with these signed protocols cannot continue because of Turkey's unconstructive and antagonistic posture,” they said.

* Turkish PM and Obama


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U.S. President Barack Obama will meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today on the sidelines of his nuclear security summit in Washington, the White House said.

Prior to the meeting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told CNN he was confident that the U.S. president would not use the term genocide to describe the incidents of 1915.

"That would be my expectation, because to this day, no American leader has uttered that word, and I believe that President Obama will not," he said.

Erdogan said the time when the killings took place was a period of war and revolts, and pointed out that the Turkish people also suffered terrible losses during the 1914-18 conflict.

"No nation, no people has the right to impose the way it remembers history to another nation or people - and Turkey does not try to do that," he added.

From Public Radio of Armenia and Armenialiberty