ARMENIA-TURKEY TIES, KARABAKH SETTLEMENT NOT CONNECTED – STEPANAKERT (PART 2)

Interfax
Feb 16 2010
Russia

Normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations is in no way connected
with the settlement of the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict, said president
of the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh region, Bako Saakian.

"Although Turkey continues attempts to link these two processes, such
an approach cannot be justified now or in the future," Saakian said
at a news conference after talks with the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe’s Chairman-in-Office and Kazakh Foreign
Minister Kanat Saudabayev.

"Armenian-Turkish relations have nothing to do with the Karabakh
conflict. Not only the governments of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,
but international organizations say that," Saakian said.

Nagorno-Karabakh "pins certain hopes on Kazakhstan’s presidency of
the OSCE in matters of settling the conflict. We voiced our ideas in
the talks and we hope they will be heeded," he said.

A discussion of the Karabakh conflict in the context of international
law will bring us closer to a settlement, he said.