ARF SAYS OUTSIDE PRESSURES MAR KARABAKH TALKS
Asbarez
rf-says-outside-pressures-mar-karabakh-talks/
Aug 10, 2009
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-A senior Armenian Revolutionary Federation official
said Turkey’s preconditions for normalizing relations with Armenia
have increased pressure on Yerevan to make concessions in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported.
The ARF Bureau political director Giro Manoyan told RFE/RL that
Washington and other mediators are pressing parties to agree on
the principles of a Karabakh settlement before an October 14 soccer
match in Turkey that Ankara hopes Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian
will attend.
"Their haste is, in effect, related to Turkey’s precondition that it
will not sign a [normalization] agreement with Armenia until there
is progress on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue," Manoyan said.
He said such haste endangers Armenian interests regarding Karabakh
"because it does not stem from the logic of the conflict’s resolution."
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation strongly opposes the resolution
framework drafted by American, French, and Russian mediators. The
party has also criticized Yerevan’s rapprochement with Turkey, which
was initiated by Sarkisian.