NAGORNO-KARABAKH SETTLEMENT PROCESS REMAINS AT STRATEGIC STANDSTILL: U.S EXPERT

Trend
Jan 13 2010
Azerbaijan

The profound historic and material mistrust between Armenia and
Azerbaijan is the single most decisive factor in the stalled process,
expert at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute John
Sitilides said.

This is compounded by Russia’s strategic interest in consolidating and
enlarging its influence in the Caucasus, as well as the increasingly
lucrative energy grid expanding across the region," DC and chairs
the Woodrow Wilson Center Southeast Europe Project, Sitilides told
Trend News.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding the peace negotiations.

"The Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process remains at a strategic
standstill, even as Turkey aspires to engage Russia in pressuring
Armenia, as well as legislative procedures in Ankara and Yerevan
to ratify the protocols normalizing their bilateral relationship,"
Sitilides said.

Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers Ahmet Davutoglu and Edward
Nalbandian signed the Ankara-Yerevan protocols in Zurich Oct. 10.

Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey were broken due
to Armenian claims of an alleged genocide and its occupation of
Azerbaijani lands. Their border closed in 1993.

Yerevan will further point to the OSCE Minsk Group process and related
statements in late 2009 reiterating that no linkage exists between
improving Turkey-Armenia relations and resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, Sitilides said.

The U.S-Russia cooperation is an unlikely prospect, as the United
States and Russia have divergent visions of how the Caucuses should
develop politically and economically, expert said.

"The critical factor here may well be Turkey, which is asserting its
strategic independence from the U.S. and NATO, and is increasingly
keen to cooperate with Russia in the Black Sea and Caucasus regions
in pursuit of its own interests," Sitilides said.