RUSSIAN FM PAYS HIS REGULAR VISIT TO ARMENIA IN UNPLANNED PERIOD
PanARMENIAN.Net
18.01.2010 17:21 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov carried
out his regular visit to Armenia in an unplanned period, Caucasus
Institute Director, political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan finds.
The visit coincided, in time aspect, with RA CC decision on
Armenia-Turkey protocols’ conformability to Armenia’s Constitution,
he told today a news conference devoted to "Armenia-Russia relations:
Summing up the results of RF Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit
to Yerevan".
"This is a tense and interesting period. Russia dynamically develops
ties with Turkey in energy and political-military sectors. In this
respect, Mr. Lavrov’s visit to Armenia is crucial to the entire
region," the expert said.
For his part, political scientist Alexander Markarov proposed the
following triangle: Turkish premier’s visit to Moscow, Sergey Lavrov’s
visit to Armenia and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s visit
to Moscow. All these visits, according to him, focused on regional
problems, including Karabakh conflict settlement and Armenian-Turkish
reconciliation.
Sergey Lavrov was off to Armenia on January 13-14. In a news conference
held in Yerevan, he told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter that the date
of his visit had been appointed 1.5 months before his arrival while
Turkish Premier’s visit to Moscow had been planned just a few days
before his departure to Russian capital.
The protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks
held through Swiss mediation.
On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of
Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country’s Organic Law.
The Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) is a de facto independent republic
located in the South Caucasus, bordering by Azerbaijan to the north
and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west.
After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923
it formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the
Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan
launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that
was fought from 1991 to 1994.
Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several
regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the
control of Nagorno Karabakh defense army.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated
by the OSCE Minsk Group.