YEREVAN DENIES TURKISH MEDIATION IN KARABAKH ROW

Today’s Zaman
Feb 12 2009
Turkey

Armenia swiftly rejected yesterday a news report suggesting that
Armenia and Azerbaijan had reached a preliminary agreement on the
decades-old Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Turkey’s support.

The Turkish daily Hurriyet suggested yesterday that Turkish Foreign
Minister Ali Babacan, who last week attended the 45th Munich Security
Conference, facilitated an agreement over the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict following bilateral talks with his Armenian counterpart,
Edward Nalbandian, and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov.

Mammadyarov was on board a private jet hired by the Turkish Foreign
Ministry for Babacan and his accompanying delegation as the Turkish
minister paid a one-day official visit to Baku on Sunday. According
to Hurriyet, the two ministers discussed the principle agreement on
board the plane, with Babacan informing Azerbaijani President Ä°lham
Aliyev about the agreement during their meeting on Sunday.

In Ankara, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials neither denied nor
confirmed the reported agreement, which called for Armenia’s gradual
return of six settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh, with Azerbaijan opening
its highways and railways to Armenia in response. Officials, however,
did acknowledge that the Azerbaijani and Turkish ministers flew to
Baku together on board a jet hired by the Turkish ministry.

"The negotiations over Artsakh [Armenian name of Nagorno-Karabakh]
conflict are not conducted through Turkey," Tigran Balayan, the head
of the media relations department of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, was
quoted yesterday as saying by an English-language Armenian news portal.

"Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has announced many times that
the negotiations over the resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
are held in the frames of the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs based on
Madrid principles," Balayan also noted, referring to a sub-group
of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
countries called the Minsk Group, which is focused on resolving the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan in the
early 1990s after a protracted war between Azerbaijan and Armenia
over the mountainous region that began in the late 1980s. In a show
of solidarity with Azerbaijan, Turkey severed its diplomatic ties
and closed its border with Armenia and says Armenian withdrawal from
Nagorno-Karabakh is a precondition for normalizing ties.

The first step of the principle agreement is, according to Hurriyet, a
gradual handover to Azerbaijan of five of the six settlements that were
predominantly Azerbaijani-populated before the Armenian occupation —
namely Kubatli (Qubadli), Jebrail (Cabrayil), Zangelan (Zangilan),
Aghdam (Agdam) and Fizuli (Fuzuli).

The second step is a return of Azerbaijanis to these places, which
will be followed by the third step — handing over the administration
of Nagorno-Karabakh to a temporary administration in order to outline
the status of the region. After the status is agreed upon, the sixth
settlement, called Kelbajar (Kalbacar), will also be handed over
to Azerbaijan. In response, Azerbaijan will simultaneously open its
highways and railways connected to Armenia.

The last step would be the deployment of an international peace force
along the border between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh that would not
include Turkish or Russian forces, Hurriyet said.

When asked about Hurriyet’s report, Ä°lter Turkmen, a retired Turkish
ambassador and former foreign minister, said such developments are
desirable and can emerge this suddenly. He, however, remained cautious.

"The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan cannot be solved
easily. It is a long-term commitment," Turkmen told Today’s Zaman.

He added that Turkey is in a hurry to resolve its own conflict with
Armenia because if the border is opened prior to US President Barack
Obama’s speech marking April 24 — the day when Armenians commemorate
an alleged genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire during World
War I — then this development would make the Obama administration
hesitant to scratch old wounds in the history of Turks and Armenians
since the United States supports the improvement of relations between
those countries.

Turkmen also recalled the difficulty faced by the Turkish side, which
expects resolution of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan
before moving forward in its relations with Armenia.

Babacan has repeatedly said resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute
would help Armenian-Turkish relations.

Turkey put forth a concrete sign of willingness to step up diplomatic
efforts in order to normalize relations between Ankara, Baku and
Yerevan last September when President Abdullah Gul visited the Armenian
capital for a soccer match between Turkey and Armenia. The countries
have also participated in three-way talks on normalizing relations.

There were reports in November that Gul was readying to take another
bold step to contribute to regional peace in the Caucasus by hosting
a trilateral summit with the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On the other hand, Masis Mayilian, a former deputy foreign minister
of Nagorno-Karabakh and president of the Public Council for Foreign
and Security Policy based in Stepanakert, told Today’s Zaman that
the recent information in the Hurriyet daily is "wishful thinking."

"Someone tried to pass the desirable for reality," he said, adding
that because Turkey remains influential in Azerbaijan, it could
make a constructive contribution to settling the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. For that, he said, Turkey should persuade Azerbaijan to
"give up claims on a small part of Soviet Azerbaijani territory."
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