APA, Azerbaijan
March 20 2010

Bulent Aliriza: No progress in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict due to
complicated situation in Caucasus

[ 20 Mar 2010 07:25 ]

Washington. Isabel Levine`APA. `If there was even a small progress in
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the situation in Caucasus wouldn’t be so
complicated’ – told APA’s Washington correspondent Bulent Aliriza,
Senior Research Associate and Director of the Turkey Project at Center
for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington DC based
think tank.

Analyst reminded that, In October 2009 US State Secretary Hillary
Clinton had played a prominent role at a ceremony in Zurich where
Turkey and Armenia finalized prolonged negotiations by signing
protocols relating to the establishment of full diplomatic relations
and the reopening of their common border.
In his tern, Turkish Prime minister Tayyib Erdogan made it clear soon
after this event that the protocols would not be ratified by the
Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) until Armenia began the process
of withdrawal from occupied Azeri territory in and around
Nagorno-Karabakh.

`As there has been little tangible progress in Azeri-Armenian talks,
the TGNA has not moved on the protocols. For its part, the Armenian
government has continued to argue that the two issues are independent
of each other, declared that the Armenian Parliament will not ratify
the protocols until after Turkish ratification and recently sought and
received parliamentary authorization to withdraw its signature from
the protocols’ -Mr. Aliriza added.

Speaking about the `Genocide Vote’ in Congress on March 4, 2010,
analyst stressed that, even as the House Foreign Affairs Committee was
preparing to vote, the administration continued to stress the
importance of Turkish Parliament approval of the protocols:

According to the analyst, on top of all his other domestic and
international problems, US president Barak Obama now needs to find a
way to navigate between the competing and contradictory claims of the
Armenian Diaspora in the US and the Armenian government which want him
to live up to his word on the genocide issue and the Turkish
government which is calling on him to act in accordance with America’s
geopolitical interests.

`Attention now shifts from Congress to what Obama will choose to say
on April 24′ ` Mr. Aliriza said finalizing his thoughts.