Ladies and gentlemen,

I am glad to welcome my good friend and colleague, Foreign Minister of Germany Mr. Steinmeier, who is paying an official visit to Yerevan. Our last meeting was a few months ago, in June, when I was in Berlin. We have started our meetings some years ago and now we meet regularly. All our meetings are very effective and meaningful, as was today’s meeting.

Today we touched upon our bilateral relations, political dialogue which continues on a high level and actively, as well as our trade and economic cooperation, legal framework. Now we have around fifty signed agreements, and are preparing new ones.

We spoke about the inter-parliamentary relations, decentralized cooperation. We also touched upon a number of regional and international issues of mutual interest.

We had a detailed discussion on the issues concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. I presented the joint efforts that Armenia together with the Co-Chairs, are exerting towards the peaceful settlement of the conflict. I informed about the preparatory works of the upcoming Paris summit which is scheduled at the end of this month.

We also discussed Armenia-EU relations. We attach a great importance to the bilateral cooperation with Germany in this format, in this context. We will continue to make efforts together with our German partners to form a new legal basis between Armenia and the EU.

We also touched upon a number of other questions like the Ukrainian crisis, as well as the negotiation process on Iranian nuclear program, the situation in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East in general. And we are going to continue our discussions today as well.

Now I have a pleasure to give the floor to Mr. Steinmeier.

Mediamax: Mr. Nalbandian, Erdogan has announced two days ago that in researching the 1915 events one should rely on the materials of Turkish libraries and archives. The Turkish researchers, referring to those same archives, conclude that genocide was committed not by the Turks but against the Turks. How would you comment this?

Answer: It is strange that the genocide-related materials, kept in Turkish libraries and archives, completely differ by their contents from the materials kept in the archives and libraries around the world. It is no coincidence that if the decision-makers in Turkey are relying on such materials, the policy of zero problems is having zero results.

By the way, I just passed to my colleague, Mr. Steinmeier, a new publication evidencing the Armenian Genocide which contains around 240 documents from the German archives.

Der Spiegel: My question is directed to the both Ministers, the first one - to the Armenian Foreign Minister. Currently a movie called “The Cut” is being shown in Germany, and the director of the film is of German-Turkish origin. The film tells about the massacres against Armenians in 1915. Next year is the 100th anniversary of the massacres. Do you see a perspective that on the eve of the tragic Centennial a reconciliation takes place with Turkey, as well as with Azerbaijan?

Answer: You know, that 5 years ago on the initiative of the President of the Republic of Armenia we sent not only such serious messages, but stretched a hand, and launched a process which resulted to the signing of protocols in Zurich, intended to give us an opportunity to normalize our relations and create conditions between the two nations to contact and freely talk about every question. And it was not Armenia, but Turkey, which did not find enough courage to ratify and implement the protocols, the agreements that had been signed.

By the way, the representatives of international organizations and different countries were present at the signature ceremony. You know, that the Secretary of State of the United States, the Foreign Ministers of Russia, France, Switzerland, as well as representatives from the European Union and the Council of Europe were present.

The most important principle in the international relations is the principle Pacta sunt servanda. In other words, one should respect the agreements, that have been made. Turkey wasn’t able to respect those agreements that were signed, and we were not able to implement them.

So we have made such messages, and gestures, and as the international community has stated on several occasions, the ball is in Turkey’s court.

Regarding Azerbaijan, I should note once again that Armenia is ready for the settlement of the issue based on those proposals made by the three Co-Chairs which have international mediation mandate and expressed in the last 5 statements on the level of the Presidents of the Co-Chair Countries. But we did not hear about such readiness of Azerbaijan. So, the ball is in Azerbaijan’s court.