OSCE MG: TURKEY-ARMENIA THAW SHOULDN’T BE LINKED TO KARABAKH

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
20.05.2009 19:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey should not link its efforts to normalize
ties with Armenia to a settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,
a French negotiator said on Wednesday.

Ankara and Yerevan have been engaged for months in high-level talks
aimed at establishing diplomatic relations after a century of hostility
and last month announced a "road map" to reopen their borders.

But after Turkey’s Muslim ally Azerbaijan condemned the reconciliation
moves, Ankara said there will be no progress until the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict is resolved.

Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan promised Azerbaijan’s
President Ilham Aliyev during a visit to Baku that Turkey will not
open the border with Armenia unless the Karabakh problem is settled.

"Normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations and the settlement of
the Nagorno Karabakh dispute are two separate processes which should
continue in parallel but along their own paths," the French Embassy
in Ankara said in a statement after a visit earlier this week by
Bernard Fassier, a Co-chair of the Minsk Group.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress