Azernews.Az

Former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosian has stated his support for Turkey's admission to the European Union.
"Its membership would benefit Armenia both in terms of economics and politics," said Ter-Petrosian, who is running for the country's 2008 presidential elections.
Ter-Petrosian, who is known for his terse criticism of incumbent authorities, lambasted Yerevan for blocking Ankara's efforts aimed at accession to the 27-member secular union.
"Isn't it clear that Armenia can neither assist nor pose obstacles for Turkey's admission?" he queried. "What good can come from sending letters to Brussels demanding not to start membership talks or putting forth a condition on recognizing the Armenian genocide? If Europe wanted to, it could put forth this condition without our request."
Ter-Petrosian said that instead of what he called "the Armenian government's meaningless work" done in the past 10 years, Yerevan should not impede, but on the contrary, demand that Brussels not speculate with the genocide issue and leave the solution of the problem to the sides involved.
"No one can force Turkey to recognize the genocide. But they could do so after friendly relations are forged between the two countries and the environment of mutual trust is established," the former Armenian president said.
Armenians say Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people during World War I, a claim strenuously denied by the Turkic world.
Ter-Petrosian pounded a wave of criticism at the foreign policy pursued by President Robert Kocharian's administration, calling it "a combination of empty and meaningless statements not backed up by any concrete steps".
Ter-Petrosian went on to say that incumbent authorities have failed to achieve legislative approval for extending Section 907 to the Freedom Support Act, which bans direct US assistance to the Azerbaijani government. Moreover, the US Congress initially called for the recognition of the "Armenian genocide" but then backtracked.
The former leader also blamed the Armenian leadership for the failure to hamper construction of the major Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki-Gars railway bypassing the country's territory. "They [the authorities] were trying to dictate to the world community that they will not allow the construction of the rail line to proceed, but the project is already under way."
Pointing to another setback, Ter-Petrosian said the government had been opposed to the pullout of a Russian military base from Georgia's Akhalkalaki region "but the base is no longer there".
"All these represent a series of shameful defeats for Armenia's foreign political course, which President Robert Kocharian and Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian are reluctant to admit," he concluded.