KOCHARIAN-ALIYEV MEETING IF SUCCESSFUL WILL FORCE TURKEY TO OPEN ITS BORDER WITH ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.06.2007 17:03 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders are due to meet in
St. Petersburg, Russia on June 9 to talk on the basic principles of
the settlement on Nagorno Karabakh, which if successful will force
Turkey to open its border with Armenia, said Omer Luthem, retired
ambassador and chairman of the institute for Armenian research at ASAM.

However, settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not enough
for it, according to him.

The settlement may help normalization but this would not be sufficient
in itself. Turkey additionally insists on Armenia giving up claims
of the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish diplomat said.

If they agree on the settlement, then Turkey has to give an "award"
by opening its border which was closed in 1993, Omer Luthem said. A
peaceful solution to Nagorno Karabakh is one of the preconditions set
by Ankara for establishing diplomatic relations with Yerevan, he added.

If the two leaders can agree on the status of Nagorno Karabakh,
the withdrawal of Armenian forces from seven nearby regions around
Nagorno Karabakh is expected to be resolved easily, Omer Luthem said.

However diplomatic sources based in Ankara do not expect a swift
solution pointing to other problems such as the timing of withdrawal
of Armenian forces from seven regions, the corridor problem between
Azerbaijan and Armenia, the timing of the referendum and the return
of refugees and so on, the Turkish Daily News says.