RUSSIA SEES NO LINK BETWEEN ARMENIAN-TURKISH RECONCILIATION AND NAGORNO-KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS: LAVROV
ARKA
Jan 14, 2010
YEREVAN, January 14, /ARKA/. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov
said today in Yerevan Moscow does not see any link between the
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh
peace process.
Speaking at a news conference in the Armenian capital city after talks
with Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan and his Armenian counterpart
Edward Nalbandian, Lavrov said any attempt to link both processes is
not correct.
He said Russia supports both processes, however putting forth
artificial conditions is not correct.
Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic ties since Armenia became
independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Turkey closed its border
with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for its ally, Azerbaijan,
in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process. Turkey refuses
also to acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians in the last years
of the Ottoman Empire as a genocide.
Last October 10 in Zurich Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers
signed two protocols on establishment of diplomatic relations and
opening of borders, which yet have to be ratified by both countries’
parliaments. On January 12 Armenian Constitutional Court ruled that
both protocols are in conformity with the Constitution.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1988 after the
predominantly Armenian-populated enclave declared about secession
from Azerbaijan As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the
Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the enclave’s government,
the Armenian majority voted in 1991, December 10, to secede from
Azerbaijan and in the process proclaimed the enclave the Republic
of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Full-scale fighting, initiated by Azerbaijan, erupted in the late
winter of 1992. International mediation by several groups including
Europe’s OSCE’s failed to bring an end resolution that both sides
could work with. In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured
regions outside the enclave itself. By the end of the war in 1994,
the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and also
held and currently control seven regions beyond the administrative
borders of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Almost 1 million people on both sides have been displaced as a result
of the conflict. A Russian- -brokered ceasefire was signed in May
1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have been
held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan.