ARMENIA SHOULD SET SPECIFIC TIMEFRAMES TO TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.01.2010 19:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Neither Moscow nor Washington could openly declare
that they link Armenian-Turkish rapprochement with Karabakh peace
process, Neo-Conservative Movement leader Edward Abrahamyan finds.

"Unfortunately, words and deeds often differ in politics," he told
PanARMENIAN.Net in an interview.

"After the meeting with Russian Premier in Ankara, Erdogan announced
that the two processes are ‘implicitly’ interrelated. And we all
realize what he meant by that," the expert said.

"To avoid tricks, it would be advisable for Armenian authorities
to set Protocol ratification timeframes to Turkey before the 95th
anniversary of Genocide," he stressed.

The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks
held through Swiss mediation.

On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of
Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country’s Organic Law.

The Arsakh (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.