STATEMENTS ON COORDINATION OF STANDS BY RUSSIA AND TURKEY ON KARABAKH ARE UNTIMELY: RUSSIAN PARLIAMENTARIAN

ArmInfo
2008-10-23 18:40:00

ArmInfo. Statements on coordination of stands by Russia and Turkey on
Karabakh are untimely, Konstantin Zatoulin, First Vice Chairman of the
State Duma Committee for CIS and Relations with Compatriots, Director
of CIS Institute said in the course of a video-bridge Yerevan-Moscow
‘Results of Russian President’s visit to Armenia’ in Yerevan Thursday.

‘Russia and Turkey have a number of common interests and it is evident.

However, we have no coordinated approach to the Karabakh problem. It
is another matter that Turkey’s interests are not always in compliance
with the interests of NATO it is a member of. Thus, during the five-day
war in South-Ossetia Ankara’s approach to the problem proved different
than that of NATO, which considerably reduced the quantity of the
US and NATO Navy hurrying on to render humanitarian assistance
to Georgia’, he said. Zatoulin said that in Moscow they display
‘understanding’ to Turkey’s interests in NATO. However, it is possible
to develop constructive relations with Ankara since NATO membership
not always contributes to developing relations of Turkey and European
states and the USA. ‘The situation with Northern Cyprus is an evident
example of that, for Northern Cyprus was occupied by Turkey despite
the fact that Greece is also a NATO member-state’, Zatoulin said.