HOVHANNES HOVHANNESYAN: NATURE OF ARMENIA-TURKEY RAPPROCHEMENT TENDS TO BECOME INCREASINGLY MARASMIC
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
23.03.2010 16:22 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia-Turkey rapprochement got off to a bad
start, followed by the wrong development of the process, according to
Hovhannes Hovhannesyan, the chairman of the Liberal Party of Armenia
(LPA).
"Having no legitimate status in Armenia, the president sought to
compensate the lack of it with his so-called initiative foreign policy,
which also failed miserably," he told a news conference in Yerevan.
"The nature of Armenia-Turkish rapprochement tends to become
increasingly marasmic, posing a threat to Armenia’s security.
Resignation of current authorities and early presidential elections
are the only way out of situation," he stated.
Dwelling on Karabakh conflict, LPA leader emphasized that the revised
Madrid principles have cornered Armenia. "These principles offer a
stepwise approach to conflict settlement, which is a much harder
solution compared to that proposed by Levon Ter-Petrossian," LPA
leader concluded.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out back in 1991, when, subsequent
to the demand for self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh people,
Azerbaijani authorities attempted to resolve the issue through ethnic
cleansings, carried out by Soviet security forces (KGB special units)
under the pretext of the implementation of the passport regime and by
launching of large-scale military operations, which left thousands dead
and caused considerable material damage. A cease-fire agreement was
established in 1994. Negotiations on the settlement of the conflict are
being conducted under the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen
(Russia, USA, France) and on the basis of their Madrid proposals,
presented in November, 2007.
Azerbaijan has not yet implemented the 4 resolutions of the UN
Security Council adopted in 1993, by continuing to provoke arms race
in the region and openly violating on of the basic principles of the
international law: non-use of force or threat of force.