BERNARD FASSIER: TURKEY-ARMENIA TALKS AND NAGORNO-KARABAKH PROCESS AS PARALLEL LINES THAT NEVER CROSS

armradio.am
20.05.2009 15:08

The Turkey-Armenia track has no link to the Nagorno-Karabakh talks,
according to the French Co-Chair of the OSCE, Minsk Group.

"We consider the Turkey-Armenia talks and Nagorno-Karabakh process as
parallel lines, and according to Euclidian geometry, parallel lines
never cross. But, there are interactions. The historic reconciliation
between Turkey and Armenia could affect the environment positively
but not Nagorno-Karabakh talks," Bernard Fassier said at a luncheon
with a limited group of journalists in Turkey, the Hurriyet Daily
News reported.

Fassier, on the eve of a crucial meeting between Armenian and
Azerbaijani leaders early next month in St. Petersburg, visited Ankara
as a last stop of a regional tour that included Yerevan and Baku. He
held meetings at the Foreign Ministry just a week after Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would not open its border with
Armenia unless Yerevan ends its occupation on Azerbaijani territory.

"An unfortunate mix of these talks might only make things more
difficult," Fassier said. According to Turkish sources, Fassier asked
Turkey not to link these two issues, especially at a time when the
international community has increased its pressure on the parties to
compromise for a solution.

"We are not trying to reach for the moon, but20to solve what is
possible to solve today," he said, adding that the Minsk Group
has so far proposed to establish an interim situation that would
not constitute casus belli (justification for acts of war) for any
of the countries. The further stages and the final status of the
Nagorno-Karabakh would be reasonably settled afterward.