Four Armenian Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have stated their willingness to pursue the process of normalization with Turkey, less than a week after President Serzh Sargsyan announced that Armenia has suspended rapprochement efforts by means of protocol ratification.

Eurasia Partnership Foundation, the International Center for Human Development, the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen (Employers) of Armenia, and Yerevan Press Club signed a memorandum of cooperation concerning the issue.

“The fact of unification is gratifying itself, because in Armenia NGOs more often compete, than cooperate with one another,” says Head of Eurasia Partnership Foundation Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan.

According to him, all organizations in Turkey have ties with other NGOs, and being united it will be possible to work with about 150 Turkish organizations.

The heads of the NGOs plan to organize joint analysis and discussions about different aspects of Armenian-Turkish relations, as well as other joint programs.

Arsen Ghazaryan, Head of the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen (Employers) of Armenia, believes that “it will be faster to pass the complicated road of relations together.”

“In 1997, our union founded an Armenian-Turkish Committee [within the union], and last year we opened our representative office in Istanbul [Turkey], which will later help settle the issue connected with Armenian products’ export to Turkey,” Ghazaryan says.

According to him, “the Turkish public is quite multi-layered, and with the help of NGOs’ initiatives they will be able to create a core, which will later have an influence upon Turkish authorities.”