NAGORNO-KARABAKH PRESIDENT SLAMS TURKEY FOR LINKING NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA WITH NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

ARKA
Feb 16, 2010

YEREVAN, February 16, /ARKA/. Nagorno-Karabakh president Bako Sahakian
slammed today Turkey for linking normalization of its relations
with Armenia with progress in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with OSCE chairman-in-office,
Kazakh foreign minister Kanat Saudavayev in Yerevan, Bako Sahakian
said both issues are different and solution of one has nothing to do
with the other. He said this viewpoint is shared and supported also
by other countries mediating Armenian-Turkish reconciliation. He said
Armenia’s position and strive to establish an unconditioned lasting
peace and stability in the region deserves praise.

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.