Turkey has no place in Karabakh settlement
17.10.2016,
18:44
The deputy speaker of Armenian parliament, Eduard Sharmazanov, has joined today other senior Armenian officials to shrug off a statement by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov that Turkey may have a positive role in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
YEREVAN, October 17. /ARKA/. The deputy speaker of Armenian parliament, Eduard Sharmazanov, has joined today other senior Armenian officials to shrug off a statement by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov that Turkey may have a positive role in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“The fact that Turkey can play a positive role, ensuring the unblocking of Nagorno-Karabakh, ensuring normal economic cooperation in the region – is a major factor that we always have in mind,” Lavrov told reporters in Yerevan last week.
“If Armenia and Turkey get back to the implementation of their agreements without reference to the Karabakh conflict, we will only be glad. But our feeling is that progress in the Karabakh settlement will be crucial for seeing Armenian-Turkish relations normalize,” Lavrov said.
Sharmazanov said that in the course of an Azerbaijani aggression against Karabakh in early April this year Turkey demonstrated its pro-Azerbaijani position. Sharmazanov also cited Lavrov as saying at that time that Turkey’s actions during the April hostilities were not calling for peace, but rather, for the war, and that such actions were contrary to peace process and the official position of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.
"Turkey has no place in the settlement of the Karabakh issue, as our goal is to achieve a peaceful settlement of the conflict through mutual concessions. We will not allow Turkey to use bellicose statements and its pro-Azerbaijani position as a trump card. Turkey has nothing to do in this process," - Sharmazanov said.
He said the international community must compel it to fulfill its obligations it had assumed in Zurich.
"Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will never agree to Turkey's participation in the Karabakh settlement", - said Sharmazanov.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan sought to secede from Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by a successful referendum.
On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace agreement has been signed. Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions have been under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh is the longest-running post-Soviet era conflict and has continued to simmer despite the relative peace of the past two decades, with snipers causing tens of deaths a year.
On April 2, 2016, Azerbaijan launched military assaults along the entire perimeter of its contact line with Nagorno-Karabakh. Four days later a cease-fire was reached. ---0---
“The fact that Turkey can play a positive role, ensuring the unblocking of Nagorno-Karabakh, ensuring normal economic cooperation in the region – is a major factor that we always have in mind,” Lavrov told reporters in Yerevan last week.
“If Armenia and Turkey get back to the implementation of their agreements without reference to the Karabakh conflict, we will only be glad. But our feeling is that progress in the Karabakh settlement will be crucial for seeing Armenian-Turkish relations normalize,” Lavrov said.
Sharmazanov said that in the course of an Azerbaijani aggression against Karabakh in early April this year Turkey demonstrated its pro-Azerbaijani position. Sharmazanov also cited Lavrov as saying at that time that Turkey’s actions during the April hostilities were not calling for peace, but rather, for the war, and that such actions were contrary to peace process and the official position of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.
"Turkey has no place in the settlement of the Karabakh issue, as our goal is to achieve a peaceful settlement of the conflict through mutual concessions. We will not allow Turkey to use bellicose statements and its pro-Azerbaijani position as a trump card. Turkey has nothing to do in this process," - Sharmazanov said.
He said the international community must compel it to fulfill its obligations it had assumed in Zurich.
"Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will never agree to Turkey's participation in the Karabakh settlement", - said Sharmazanov.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan sought to secede from Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by a successful referendum.
On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace agreement has been signed. Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions have been under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh is the longest-running post-Soviet era conflict and has continued to simmer despite the relative peace of the past two decades, with snipers causing tens of deaths a year.
On April 2, 2016, Azerbaijan launched military assaults along the entire perimeter of its contact line with Nagorno-Karabakh. Four days later a cease-fire was reached. ---0---
