Statement by President Serzh Sargsyan on Results of Negotiations with Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow at Joint Press Conference

Honorable Mr. President,
Respected ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to cordially thank Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow for inviting me to visit the friendly country Turkmenistan and of course, for the warm hospitality extended to us. Ashgabat is a beautiful, hospitable and wonderful city which can be an excellent example for modern urban development with its architecture, plan and comfort. Yesterday I saw new buildings and noticed what has been changed over this one year and of course, I am returning to your remarkable country with pleasure.

We thoroughly discussed the development process of the Armenian-Turkmen relations in an atmosphere of friendship and mutual trust and outlined the main guiding principles. I am glad that the Armenian-Turkmen relations develop dynamically. The regular nature of our visits testifies that we are mutually interested in further reinforcing and developing the partnership relations between our friendly countries.

Naturally, we thoroughly discussed issues regarding trade and economic cooperation. Unfortunately, last year the trade circulation between our countries decreased but we have rich cooperation experience and more importantly, a potential in the spheres of energy, light and textile manufacturing and agriculture. We are sure that those relations will intensify and our relations, I mean the trade and economic relations, will deserve our political relations not only in 2014 but also in the future. We also discussed the development of infrastructure and energy projects.

As a result of the negotiations documents concerning political and economic cooperation issues were concluded. These documents will be included in our legal and contractual base comprised of more than 60 documents. I would like to pay a special attention to the memorandum on aviation issues, which is directed to the liberation of the relations in that field. In the near future the citizens of our countries will be able to make use of direct aircraft communications. It will be possible to implement two-hour direct flights from Yerevan to Ashgabat and this will surely make mutual exchanges and tourism increase and conditions for doing business improve substantially.

We discussed international and regional issues with Mr. President and stressed the importance of coordinating our activities in the international arena in the future. During the negotiations we expressed our willingness to further stimulate peace and security through effective collaboration in the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the UN and the OSCE.

Today I once again presented our fundamental position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict according to which the conflict should and must be settled through exclusively peaceful means in compliance with the norms and principles of international law. The Nagorno-Karabakh people’s right of self-determination is indisputable and its de facto realization must be asserted de jure. We thank Turkmenistan for understanding this vital position and for its neutrality.

Our peoples have an old history of friendly relations. We thoroughly talked about the humanitarian component of our relations. I hope that the days of our country’s culture being held in the framework of the visit will provoke great interest.

Recently, at Yerevan State University a symposium was organized dedicated to the 290th anniversary of the great Turkmen poet, philosopher and thinker Magtymguly Pyragy whose works have been translated into Armenian.

The Armenians want to discover better the rich cultural heritage of the old Turkmen people. I am sure that the days of your country’s culture to be held in Yerevan next year will also be crowned with great success.

Finally, I would like to express confidence that the negotiations which were open and constructive will promote the future development of the friendly relations between our countries.

Of course, I and the President of Turkmenistan unanimously underscored that the regular nature of our meetings is the driving force of developing our relations and I invited the President of Turkmenistan with pleasure to visit Armenia because such visits are of great benefit. Mr. President, I would like to once again thank you for your warm reception and for the attention paid to the development of our relations.

Thank you.