ARMENIAN OPPOSITION MP DOWNBEAT ON IMPROVING TIES WITH TURKEY SOON

Aravot
May 17 2009
Armenia

An Armenian opposition MP has said that Turkey’s efforts to normalize
relations with Armenia are directly linked to the settlement of the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.

In an interview with Aravot daily on 17 April, Heritage Party MP Stepan
Safaryan said that his initial optimism over the possible opening
of the Armenian-Turkish border "has turned into grounded pessimism"
because Armenian-Azerbaijani relations rather than Armenian-Turkish
relations were on the agenda of the Armenian-Turkish talks. Safaryan
believes that Turkey is willing to normalize relations with Armenia
in the context of opening the Armenian-Turkish border and settling
the Nagornyy Karabakh issue, Aravot reported.

The MP said that Turkey could not drop its pro-Azerbaijani policy
abruptly and added that "on the other hand, the Armenian president
himself shifted the issue of Armenian-Turkish relations or allowed
it to shift into the field of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations,
bypassing the issue of the genocide and other issues", the paper
reported. Safaryan said that as a result, Armenian-Turkish relations
had become more complicated and to some extent, disadvantageous
for Armenia.

Safaryan said that judging from statements made at present, "nowadays
the major dispute takes place in the following context – should the
Armenian-Turkish border be opened before Azerbaijan and Armenia sign
a framework document [on the Karabakh settlement] called ‘Madrid
principles’, or after that?", the paper reported. Safaryan does not
believe that the Armenian public will "support these talks" because
it is obvious that the word is about "bargaining at the cost of the
[Armenian] genocide and Armenia’s national interests", Aravot said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress