SNAGS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH DEBATE?
United Press International UPI
Nov 23 2009
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 23 (UPI) — Opening the Turkish border to
Armenia will not only damage the international standing of Baku but
of Ankara as well, Azeri officials said.
Turkish relations with Armenia were complicated by claims of genocide
during the Ottoman Empire. Recent ties are strained further over
issues regarding the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area of dispute
between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Leaders from Turkey and Armenia met in Zurich, Switzerland, in October
to sign protocols aimed at restoring bilateral ties following years
of acrimony.
The protocols outline a series of provisions, ranging from a bilateral
denunciation of terrorism to stating a "willingness to chart a
new pattern and course for their relations on the basis of common
interests, goodwill and in pursuit of peace, mutual understanding
and harmony."
War broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh
in the early 1990s, and the regional fallout from that row remains
tense despite a 1994 cease-fire.
Nazim Ibrahimov, a lawmaker working on an Azeri diaspora committee,
said opening the borders between the two countries, however, would
harm regional affairs, the Trend news agency in Azerbaijan reports.
Samvel Farmanyan, a spokesman for the Armenia government, said that
while Yerevan does not rule out the possibility of conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh, peace is the favored course of action.
"Armenia has always declared it sees no alternative to peaceful
settlement," he told Public Radio of Armenia.