KARABAKH MEDIATOR BRIEFS NALBANDIAN ON VISITS TO TURKEY, AZERBAIJAN

bakh-mediator-briefs-nalbandian-on-visits-to-turke y-azerbaijan/
May 21st, 2009

BRUSSELS-Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met Wednesday with
the French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk, Berdard Fassier, in Brussels
for talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Turkey’s ongoing efforts
to link its own talks with Armenia to the conflict’s resolution.

The meeting came after Ambassador Fassier warned Turkey on Monday to
drop ongoing efforts to link the normalization of its relations with
Armenia to a Nagorno-Karabakh resolution favoring ally Azerbaijan. The
French diplomat visited Ankara Monday where met with Foreign Ministry
officials on the last leg of a regional tour that included similar
visits to Yerevan and Baku.

Fassier, who co-heads the Minsk Group with Yury Merzlyakov of Russia,
and Matthew Bryza of the United States, briefed Nalbandian on his
meetings in Baku and informed him of a new round of regional visits
set for the end of the month.

The next regional tour will seek to set the groundwork for an upcoming
meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan that will
likely take place in St. Petersburg Russia in June, Fassier said.

The French diplomat on Saturday had expressed concern over the growing
diplomatic traffic between Ankara and Baku centered around the Karabakh
conflict. His visit to Ankara ostensibly aimed to discuss the "many
visits from Turkey to Azerbaijan."

Turkey, a non-actor in the Karabakh conflict, has been seeking to
boost its role in the peace process by linking its own negotiations
with Armenia to those spearheaded by the OSCE Minsk Group between
Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan explicitly reaffirmed his
country’s intention to continue making that link during his visit to
Baku last week.

Despite Erdogan’s insistence, a connection between the two issues
does not exist and that the Turkish Prime Minister’s ongoing attempt
to draw a connection between the two can damage regional relations,
Fassier said, adding that such a condition should not be expected.

"The normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations should not be confused
with the Karabakh conflict," the French diplomat said in Baku. "These
are different and parallel processes."

The Minsk Group met with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in
Prague on May 7 and described those talks as constructive and positive
with the two countries closer than ever to a compromise solution.

Linking the Karabakh peace process with Turkey’s negotiations with
Armenia can jeopardize the new momentum in the talks, according to
Fassier, whose concerns were also echoed by the French Embassy in
Ankara on Tuesday. Armenia has also criticized Erdogan for making
the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on
a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, saying that such statements could
hamper both the Armenian-Azerbaijani, as well as the Armenian-Turkish
negotiations.

President Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian reacted to
Erdogan’s statements as they separately met in Yerevan on May 14 with
Brian Fall, Britain’s special representative for the South Caucasus.

In a written statement Sarkisian said that "any Turkish attempt
to interfere in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem can
only harm that process." While Nalbanidan, in a separate statement
said Erdogan’s stance "precludes further progress in the ongoing
Turkish-Armenian fence-mending negotiations."