ARMENIAN-TURKISH RAPPROCHEMENT AND KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT – SEPARATE PROCESSES

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.01.2010 18:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish premier’s visit to Moscow and Russian FM"s
visit to Yerevan proved once again that RA-Turkish rapprochement
is not linked with Karabakh process, Secretary of RPA parliamentary
group Edward Sharmazanov finds.

"During the meeting with Turkey’s Erdogan, Russian premier Vladimir
Putin said the two processes are separate from one another,
while Russia’s Lavrov announced in Yerevan that Russian-Turkish
economic interests could not be superior to NKR people’s right to
self-determination," Mr. Sharmazanov told a news conference in Yerevan.

At that, he ruled out possibility of signing an Armenian-Azerbaijani
framework agreement without Karabakh’s direct involvement.

The Republican Party of Armenia is a national conservative political
party in Armenia. It was the first political party in independent
Armenia to be founded (2 April 1990) and registered (14 May 1991). It
is the largest party of the centre-right in Armenia, and claims to have
140,000 members. The party controls most government bodies in Armenia.

At the 2003 parliamentary elections on May 25, the party received
23.5% of the popular vote, winning 31 out of 131 seats. At the last
parliamentary elections on May 12, 2007, the party received 33.91%
of the popular vote, winning 64 out of 131 seats. The former prime
minister, Andranik Markaryan, was the leader of the party. Current
President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, is the chairman of RPA board.

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.

Armenian-Turkish rapprochement and Karabakh conflict settlement are
separate process, according to Secretary of Republican Party Edward
Sharmazanov.