Armenian foreign ministry: Turkey should be kept away from Karabakh negotiation process
17.10.2016,
11:10
Turkey, with its openly biased stance taken on Karbakh conflict can have no place in negotiations and it should be kept away from the process, Shavarsh Kocharyan, Armenian deputy foreign minister, said Monday reacting to the statement made earlier by the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.
YEREVAN, October 17. /ARKA/. Turkey, with its openly biased stance taken on Karbakh conflict can have no place in negotiations and it should be kept away from the process, Shavarsh Kocharyan, Armenian deputy foreign minister, said Monday reacting to the statement made earlier by the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.
On Friday, Lavrov said that Turkey could play a positive part in the process by ensuring the unblocking of Nagorno Karabakh and normal economic interaction in the region. In his words, this is an important factor that is always taken into account.
“With its obviously one-sided stance Turkey has no place in and should be kept away from the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process,” Kocharyan is quoted by the foreign ministry’s press office. “The only positive impact Ankara could have on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement is the opening of the border with Armenia and ceasing of encouraging Azerbaijan’s provocative and destructive steps.”
The deputy foreign minister said that the statement on the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh issue, adopted by the Presidents of the CSTO member-countries in Yerevan on October 14, expresses its support to the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg aimed at the prevention of escalation of situation in the conflict zone, stabilization of situation and creation of conditions for the advancement of peace process.
The exclusively peaceful settlement should be based on the three well-known principles of International Law - non use of force or threat of force, the territorial integrity of states and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
“The position of the Russian Federation on the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is expressed by the abovementioned statement, not through the distortion of Sergey Lavrov’s words by the Foreign Ministry of Turkey as presented in the Azerbaijani media: a qualification, which previously was ascribed to the Azerbaijani side for its misrepresentation of the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process,” he said. --0----
On Friday, Lavrov said that Turkey could play a positive part in the process by ensuring the unblocking of Nagorno Karabakh and normal economic interaction in the region. In his words, this is an important factor that is always taken into account.
“With its obviously one-sided stance Turkey has no place in and should be kept away from the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process,” Kocharyan is quoted by the foreign ministry’s press office. “The only positive impact Ankara could have on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement is the opening of the border with Armenia and ceasing of encouraging Azerbaijan’s provocative and destructive steps.”
The deputy foreign minister said that the statement on the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh issue, adopted by the Presidents of the CSTO member-countries in Yerevan on October 14, expresses its support to the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg aimed at the prevention of escalation of situation in the conflict zone, stabilization of situation and creation of conditions for the advancement of peace process.
The exclusively peaceful settlement should be based on the three well-known principles of International Law - non use of force or threat of force, the territorial integrity of states and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
“The position of the Russian Federation on the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is expressed by the abovementioned statement, not through the distortion of Sergey Lavrov’s words by the Foreign Ministry of Turkey as presented in the Azerbaijani media: a qualification, which previously was ascribed to the Azerbaijani side for its misrepresentation of the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process,” he said. --0----
