Published since 07.2002
Published on April 17, 2009
NKR IN FOCUS: BORDER TALK CENTERS ON PEACE SETTLEMENT
- After the visit of US President Barack Obama to Turkey, the country leader Abdullah Gul stated that the settlement of the Armenian-Turkish relations is impossible without settling the Karabakh issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Official Yerevan announced that they do not make the relations with Turkey conditional by the Karabakh issue. Many experts believe that this has led the process into a deadlock. Commenting on the Armenian-Turkish relations during a press conference on April 10, President Serzh Sargsyan announced for the first time that Armenia might opt out of the process of the Armenian-Turkish negotiations. He said the reason for this is that the Turkish press and official Ankara connect the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations with genocide recognition and Karabakh settlement. “Can the Turks, having changed their position, bring forth conditions we have to comply with? We must not exclude the possibility of such a turn of events. But in this case, we will opt out of the process, having gained strength,” Sargsyan said. Against this background, on April 4 and 5 American Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza made an unplanned visit to Baku, and his French colleague Bernard Fassier – to Yerevan and Baku. Besides, unplanned consultations took place between heads of Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Karabakh in the Armenian Foreign Ministry on April 3. Armenian press published materials that stated that Armenia might opt for settling Armenian-Turkish relations at the cost of making concessions in the Karabakh issue. None of the parties denies the necessity of settling the Karabakh issue. The differences are in the ways of settling it. Turkey, Azerbaijan and mediators insist on withdrawing Armenian armed forces from the conflict zone, the return of the refugees and the territories surrounding the former Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to Azerbaijan and granting a temporary status to Karabakh. The Armenian side does not accept this option. “In our opinion, to create a basis for the final settlement of the Azeri-Karabakh conflict and establish solid peace in the region it is necessary, in the first place, that Nagorno Karabakh Republic and the Republic of Azerbaijan sign mutual recognition and jointly reject the attempts of military settlement of the conflict. The mutual recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan and giving up on the military schemes must be the staring point in the negations, not the end point,” Nagorno Karabakh Foreign Minister Georgi Petrosyan believes. The chair of the committee on external relations of the Karabakh parliament Vahram Atanesyan says that Karabakh’s goals are clear. “We are obliged to solve a very pragmatic task – guarantee the Karabakh population with the acceptable form of state self-determination, within acceptable borders, with preference of their own security system. The Karabakh issue is a very capacious process, and no accelerated decisions can be made here.” However, the plan of settling the Karabakh conflict, suggested by the mediators, is apparently not to Azerbaijan’s liking as well. According to the suggested principles, Baku completely loses power over former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous District. This doesn’t fit in with Azerbaijan’s plans. And official Ankara is helping them, announcing about the impossibility of opening the Turkish-Armenian border before resolving the Karabakh conflict. “Giving such an oversensitive reaction to the seeming warming of the Armenian-Turkish relations and expressing their readiness to use sanctions against its strategic partner and “elder brother,” Azerbaijan, mildly speaking, places its own reliability as an economic partner and political ally under serious suspicion,” Karabakh political scientist Norayr Hovsepyan believes. “If we assume that the anti-Turkish propaganda in Azerbaijan, unfolded recently, is just an episode of a joint Turkish-Azeri scenario, then official Baku should be given credit for playing its role brilliantly, although, the acting as a whole, lacking exquisite diplomatic nuances, turned out to be unconvincing. In any case, that’s the impression that has shaped up in Nagorno Karabakh, unlike Europe and Russia,” the political scientist thinks. It is obvious that the settlement of the Karabakh issue becomes topic number one in regional politics. There are already signs of activating the “shuttle diplomacy” of the Minsk Group, even the EU has announced about its readiness to assist in the settlement of the Karabakh issue, but this has not changed the essence of the suggested principles of settlement. And that means that the sides still remain polarized. “It is evident that such kind of diplomacy, and, moreover, intimidation attempts, are unable to lead to resolving the Karabakh issue. Ignoring the current reality and mistaking the imaginary for the real, Azerbaijan authorities are consistently pursuing anti-Armenian policy, first of all deluding their own public. In actuality, Turkey has special influence on Azerbaijan, and if constructive approach is displayed, Turkey can play an important role in resolving the conflict, convincing Azerbaijan to give up on the unsubstantiated claims for Nagorno Karabakh,” Hovsepyan says.
- Naira Hayrumyan
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Today in Armenian history- 1879 Death of Chamik Aramyan (publisher) in Constantinople. He was born in 1820.
- 1904 Birth of Hrant G. Pastrmajian. He died in 1954.
- 1922 Aram Yerkanian and Arshavir Shirakian executed Behaeddin Shakir, the leader of the "special forces" and Jemal Azmi, former Governor of Trabizond, in Berlin. Both were active in implementing the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
- 1957 Twinning of Kirovakan (Vanadzor) and Batumi (Georgia).
- 1990 An International Scholars' Meeting titled: "The Armenian Genocide: History, Theory, Political Responsibility" and devoted to 75th Anniversary of the Armenian's Genocide, takes place in Yerevan. It lasts to April 21.
- 1997 The Legislative Assembly of New South Wales (Australia) adopts a decision to commemorate April 24 as a Memorial Day of the Armenian Genocide. It suggests to the Federal Australian Government to adopt a similar decision.
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