RUSSIA TELLS TURKEY TO DROP KARABAKH LINKAGE
By Alex DerAlexanian

Asbarez
Jan 13th, 2010

MOSCOW (RFE/RL)-Turkey should not link the normalization of its
relations with Armenia to further progress in international efforts
to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

Putin also reaffirmed Moscow’s support for Turkey’s dramatic
rapprochement with Armenia, his country’s main regional ally, after
talks with his visiting Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"We receive with great optimism Turkish proposals on the
normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations," he told a joint news
conference. "We very much hope all elements of shortest approaches
[to the normalization] will be used in the negotiating process and
Armenia’s leadership is also on this positive path."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was among foreign dignitaries
that attended the signing in Zurich last October of two protocols
envisaging the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia
and Turkey and the opening of their border. Erdogan has repeatedly
stated since then that Turkey’s parliament will not ratify the
protocols without a resolution of the Karabakh dispute acceptable to
Azerbaijan. Armenia responded to those statements by threatening to
walk away from the deal.

In remarks that will be welcomed by Yerevan, Putin made clear that
Moscow believes the two issues should not be "tied in one package."

"It is difficult to solve each of these problems separately, and
if one tackles them in a single package, then prospects for their
settlement will automatically become very remote," he said. "Packaging
these problems is not quite right from the practical and strategic
standpoints."

The Karabakh conflict was expected to be on the agenda of Erdogan’s
talks with Putin and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Speaking at a
Moscow diplomatic academy earlier in the day, Erdogan implicitly urged
the Russians to do more to broker a Karabakh settlement. He said they
can become "the most important actor" in the Karabakh peace process.

The Turkish premier’s high-profile visit focused on growing
Russian-Turkish energy cooperation. Medvedev described Moscow’s
current rapport with Ankara as "strategic partnership."