168 Zham, Armenia
Oct 12 2007
Armenian foreign minister wants EU to up pressure on Turkey
"Voicing same opinion"
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan made a sensational
statement at the session of European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs
Committee on 10 October.
He described Azerbaijan’s suggestion to discuss the Nagornyy Karabakh
issue as "totally inappropriate" and announced that Armenia considers
the OSCE Minsk group to be the only appropriate format for the
negations on the conflict. Oskanyan said there that serious prospects
for settling the conflict were identified within the OSCE frameworks
and that only four issues remain uncoordinated from the three-page
document on "core principles" of the conflict’s settlement. Oskanyan
also said that that the leaders of the two countries [Armenia and
Azerbaijan] have not yet managed to reach a mutual accord concerning
these four issues.
However he voiced hope that it is possible to overcome the
disagreements before the February 2008 presidential election in
Armenia. EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter
Semneby made a similar statement in the week of 30 September to 6
October. He said that the situation around the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict is "fragile" and "risky" and stated that the situation can
change on the threshold of the presidential elections in the two
countries. After Oskanyan made the above mentioned statement,
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said on 10 October
that Azerbaijan is ready to negotiate "with Nagornyy Karabakh
Armenians, if the official Yerevan recognizes Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity".
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan called on European
Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee on 10 October to exert pressure
upon Turkey so that this country opens its border with Armenia and
said that Yerevan does not have any preconditions for settling
relations with Ankara. Oskanyan also called on the European
Parliament’s committee to "exert more pressure" on Turkey, so that
this country starts dialogue with Armenia and said that the blockaded
Armenia is especially interested in Turkey’s opening the border,
which has been closed since the 1990s. According to Radio Liberty
some MPs were "understanding" of Oskanyan’s speech. Oskanyan
criticized EU for "neutrality" around this issue; he said that this
position is understandable, but "inappropriate". "Opening borders is
important not only for Armenia, it is important also for the European
Union, as Turkey is a geographic bridge between the Caucasus and
Europe, the European Union, and without Turkey’s balanced and
unbiased policy concerning our region our relations are not that
efficient as they could be if Turkey and Armenia had regular
relations ", Oskanyan said on 10 October.
The European Parliament’s special representative for the South
Caucasus, Mary-Anne Isler Beguin, said in particular that the
European Union does not exert sufficient pressure on Turkey during
membership negotiations with this country. She said both countries
[Armenia and Turkey] would greatly benefit from opening borders.
Criticizing EU’s "neutrality" on this issue, Oskanyan said that while
Armenia does not have preconditions regarding rapprochement between
the two countries [Armenia and Turkey], Turkey does have them
[preconditions]. He also dismissed Turkey’s concerns that Armenia has
territorial demands in its regard, and said that the border between
the two countries "is clearly marked" and corresponds to the borders
approved by the 1922 agreement signed between Turkey and the Soviet
Union.