ANKARA NOT A KEY PLAYER IN KARABAKH CONFLICT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
12.01.2010 16:07 GMT+04:00

Relations with Russia are important for Turkey in regard of energy,
since countries are implementing a number of projects in this area,
Deputy Director General of Strategic Culture Foundation Andrei Areshev
told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

He commented on the upcoming meeting between prime ministers of
Russia and Turkey in Moscow and a meeting of Russian and Armenian
foreign ministers in Yerevan, saying that the meeting will likely be
different. "Relations between Russia and Turkey are not so easy in
energy sphere, and if it is linked with the South Caucasus, everything
will mix," Areshev said.

He also discussed the Karabakh conflict settlement, saying that
although Turkey may affect some of the issues in the region, Armenia,
Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan are the main players. "Despite its
activities in the region, Ankara is not a key player in this issue
and cannot get a special breakthrough."

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) is a de facto independent republic
located in the South Caucasus, bordering by Azerbaijan to the north
and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west.

After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923
it formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the
Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan
launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that
was fought from 1991 to 1994.

Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several
regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the
control of Nagorno Karabakh defense army.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated
by the OSCE Minsk Group.