G. Petrosyan: Turkey is a hostage to its own promises to Azerbaijan

Georgy Petrosyan: Turkey is a hostage to its own promises to
Azerbaijan
24.09.2009 20:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenians and Turkey have many problems and
complicated knots, which affect today our daily lives, the NKR Foreign
Minister Georgy Petrosyan said.

"I wish the process of approach was not a matter of gambling but
serious negotiations and meetings also were held between people of two
countries, in order to make our positions clear-cut and precise and to
come to mutual understanding.

These tangled points on the whole relate not only to Armenians and the
Armenian world. In connection with the Karabakh events, I can say that
it was in the period of the modern history that Karabakhi people
raised a political question. Since 1988, in fact on the threshold of
dissolution of the USSR, we have witnessed certain events in the
territory of Azerbaijan in connection with the Armenian population: of
course passions have been fanned again, wounds opened, and if it was
not a preparatory step to commit genocide, then what was that? Today
there are different comments concerning those issues: official,
humanitarian, etc. These are the questions that seriously influence
human memories, future policy and possibilities to establish
good-neighborly relations. It’s evident that nobody will leave this
territory. Common edges must be found in this territory which must be
based on human rights, as well as on the right of people in
general. This is the most significant thing.

In addition, in the present situation we see that Turkey’s
high-ranking officials directly try to connect these two issues
together: Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the problem of Armenian-Turkish
relations. It does not contribute to the settlement of the problem, as
Turkey has obviously become the hostage of his promises given to
Azerbaijan in due course, and this very directly and clearly shows
that Azerbaijan exerts pressure. Willy-nilly Turkey becomes a
concerned party once again insisting, that without this, this and
that, it is impossible to achieve any positive result. This is also
perceived as a means of pressure; however any display of pressure can
hardly ensure positive results.

I think these days set the beginning of the future, when Karabakhi
officials will have an opportunity to get in touch not only with
journalists, but also with the politicians of different
countries. Restrained and calm political dialogues and discussions
will be very productive,’ Georgy Petrosyan said.