THE ARMENIAN-TURKISH RAPPROCHEMENT TIGHTENS THE KNOT OF THE KARABAKH CONFLICT
Andrei Korbut

WPS Agency
DEFENSE and SECURITY
May 8, 2009 Friday
Russia

NAGORNO-KARABAKH POPULATION IS DISTRESSED BY THE ARMENIAN-TURKISH
RAPPROCHEMENT; Russia seems to be gradually elbowed out of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process.

Armenia and Turkey made another go at rapprochement. With no diplomatic
relations between these two countries, the state border has been closed
since 1993 on the pretext of the latent and so far unsolved conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh. Badgered by the United States and other Western
countries, Ankara and Yerevan reactivated the bilateral process.

The whole discord is centered around two issues. Armenia demands
from Turkey to recognize genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire. Turkey in its turn demands that Armenia and Azerbaijan finally
settle the matter of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and even veteran servicemen
who were supposed to remain neutral on the issue are clearly distressed
by the possibility of the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement. Colonel
Arkady Karapetjan, the first commander of the Karabakh Self-Defense
Forces and active participant in the Karabakh movement, told this
correspondent that he expected no good to come of the Armenian-Turkish
agreement.

"First, no good ever comes of whatever is done behind the people’s back
and we have lots of example in history proving this point. Second,
they believe for some reason that it’s all right to promote "mutual
respect" and "neighborly relations" at our expense. Proclaiming the
borders open, Turkey actually continues the blockade and proceeds
with aggressive actions against Armenia in absolute defiance of
international law," Karapetjan said.

The Armenian opposition is of the same frame of mind. It is convinced
that reactivation of the Armenian-Turkish relations cannot help
leading everyone involved into a cul-de-sac because sooner or later
Turkey will demand from Armenia to settle the conflict over Karabakh.

Richard Giragosjan, Director of the Armenian Center for Strategic
and National Studies, called the Armenian-Turkish "Road Map" a tragic
development for Armenia.

Russian political scientists share this skeptical pessimism. "There are
certain obstacles like, for example, official position of the Turkish
leadership that regards Karabakh conflict settlement on Azerbaijani
terms as the first condition for advancement of the Turkish-Armenian
relations. The United States in the meantime insists on normalization
of the Turkish-Armenian relations without any preliminary conditions
which is fine and dandy by Yerevan, but… Saying it is easier than
doing. Anyway, the very fact that Washington insists on it plainly
shows that ideas concerning the situation in the Caucasus are
discussed in the language of the United States rather than that of
Russia. "That’s a fairly alarming trend clearly visible in Moscow’s
relations with Yerevan and some other post-Soviet capitals," to quote
Andrei Areshev, Assistant Director of the Strategic Culture Foundation.

The US Department of State hailed the joint Armenian-Turkish
declaration concerning normalization of the bilateral relations. Turkey
in its turn promised Azerbaijan that it wouldn’t be slighted. Position
of Turkey and its allies (the United States and, broader, the Western
community) is unequivocal: internationalization of the conflict,
solution to the territorial problems of Nagorno-Karabakh for
stabilization of the region.

Chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group meanwhile arranged for presidents
Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan) and Serj Sargsjan (Armenia) to meet in Prague
on May 7 and continue the conflict settlement talks. Observers expect
no breakthroughs from the meeting.

People keep getting killed in the conflict area. According to what
information became available to the media alone, at least 15 residents
of Karabakh were killed and as many wounded in 2008. The Azerbaijanis
lost 12 killed and 3 wounded. French Chairman Bernard Fassier said
30 had been killed in skirmishes in 2008 and 6 in 2009. Most men in
the conflict area are killed by snipers.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress