OSCE MG CO-CHAIRMEN: THE PROBLEM OF KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT IS NOT CONNECTED WITH OTHER PROCESSES
ArmInfo
2009-10-01 16:17:00
Arminfo. Peaceful settlement of Nagornyy Karabakh conflict is an
independent process and is not connected with other processes, the
joint statement of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Yuri Merzlyakov
(Russian Federation), Bernard Fassier (France) and Robert Bradtke
(the USA), made on 1 October 2009 in Yerevan, says, the statement says.
They also said that their visit to the region promotes discussion
of the uncoordinated key issues regarding the main principles of the
Karabakh conflict settlement before the meeting between Serzh Sargsyan
and Ilham Aliyev scheduled in Kishenev on 8 October. For this reason,
after meeting Armenian authorities on 1 October the co-chairs will
visit Stepanakert on 2-3 October and then Baku on 4-6 October.
To note, in the course of the active discussion of the beginning of
the Armenian-turkish relations establishment, and especially after the
roadmap arrangement in April 2009, preliminary signing and publication
of the protocols about establishment of the diplomatic relations
between the two countries in August 2009, there were many attempts to
connect the process on establishment of the Armenian-Turkish relations
with settlement if Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. In particular, Turkey’s
President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu and speaker of the parliament Mehmet
Ali Shahin used to declare on various occasions that establishment
of the Armenian-Turkish relations may be implemented only in case of
progress in settlement of Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. Recep Tayyip
Erdogan when visiting Baku in April 2009 and Mehmed Ali Shahin in
September 2009 directly declared that the border will be opened only
if Nagornyy Karabakh Republic returns within Azerbaijan. At the same
time different officials of Turkey and Azerbaijan used any meeting
on the international level to emphasize once again that these two
processes are connected with each other. The last such example are
official statements of Turkey and Azerbaijan that Recep Tayyip Erdogan
asked the OSCE MG co-chairs to accelerate the process of the Karabakh
conflict settlement and allegedly was assured to do so. Despite such
actions, the countries involved in the processes of normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relations and settlement of the Karabakh conflict
made official statements many times that these two processes are not
connected with each other and are developing parallel, not coming
across each other.
Today’s statement of the OSCE MG co-chairs is called to stop
speculations and groundless statements on the topic.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress