AMERICAN POSITION HAS BEEN THAT ISSUE OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN RELATIONS AND NAGORNO-KARABAKH PROBLEM ARE PARALLEL: HUDSON UNIVERSITY SENIOR FELLOW
T. Teymur

Today
913.html
Dec 3 2009
Azerbaijan

Senior fellow at Hudson University, expert on post-soviet countries
David Satter expressed his opinion about the upcoming meeting between
U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan.

The expert said the Nagorno-Karabakh problem will probably be
discussed.

"The issue of Nagorno-Karabach is almost certain to be discussed
but there does not seem to be much likelihood that the U.S. will be
pressuring Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. The American position has
been that the issues of Turkish-Armenian relations and Nagorno-Karabakh
are separate but parallel. Having achieved a tentative agreement on
Turkish-Armenian normalization, the U.S. is unlikely to want to risk
it by linking the two issues" – said Satter.

"This reflects the fact that the agreement on normalization was
achieved in part to relieve the U.S. of the need to take a position
on the "Armenian genocide" question. In other words, the U.S. may not
feel it is in a position to pressure Armenia further" – Satter said.