Armenia-Turkey relations won’t normalize without breakthrough in Karabakh peace process, expert says

YEREVAN, April 8. /ARKA/. No progress should be expected in normalizing Armenia-Turkey relations unless a breakthrough, even if nominal, is achieved in the negotiations on Karabakh, head of the New York branch of Institute of Democracy and Cooperation, political analyst Andranik Mihranyan told a press conference in Novosti international press center Monday.

Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan initiated a process to normalize the relations with Turkey in autumn 2008. Armenian and Turkish FMs signed protocols “about establishing diplomatic relations” and “about developing bilateral relations” on October 10, 2009, subject to ratification by the countries’ parliaments. On April 22, 2010, Armenia’s president signed a decree to suspend the process, saying that Turkey was not ready to continue it (ratification by the Turkey parliament was frozen).

Mihranyan also said that when the protocols were signed in 2009, many diplomats and experts wondered how Armenian diplomacy had managed to separate those two problems, normalizing relations with Turkey and the Karabakh peace process, from one another.

The political analyst said that the superpowers and the United States in particular, will interfere with the normalization once again only if they feel confident of the success.

There are currently no diplomatic relations established between Turkey and Armenia: official Ankara closed the border in 1993. The uneasy relationship between the countries is caused particularly by Ankara’s support to Azerbaijan on Karabakh problem and Turkey’s overreaction to international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Empire.

The Karabakh conflict started in 1988 when prevailingly Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh declared withdrawal from Azerbaijan. On December 10, 1991, a referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh where 99.89% voted for independence from Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan responded by large-scale military operations that led to loss of control not only over Nagorno-Karabakh itself, but also over seven adjoining areas. About 25-30 thousands people were killed and about a million had to leave their homes during the military operations.

A trilateral cease-fire agreement was signed on May 12, 2004, and has been followed since then.

The ongoing Karabakh peace process started in 1992 under auspices of OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the USA, Russia and France. -0-