The seminar titled “Settlement of Armenia-Turkey relationship: challenges and prospective” continued from October 29 to 30 in Tsaghkadzor, which was jointly organized “The Civic Consent NGO” and the Embassy of the Great Britain in Yerevan. Leading expert of the Regional Research Center, former director of NSS (National Security service) of Armenian, former ambassador on special assignments of the president of RA David Shahnazaryan first touched upon the developments on the settlement process of NK issue, the regional visit of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.
He reminded the scandalous speech of Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu at the autumn plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on October 12, when he said,
“Russia has made quite reasonable proposals that is the removal of the Armenians from the five occupied districts of Azerbaijan. This option is discussed now.”
Shahnazaryan noted that just two days after that Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov diplomatically avoided to speak about the statement made by Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Note that Lavrov spoke about NK settlement issue and Armenian-Turkish relationships, noting that Turkey might have a positive role in the settlement of the NK conflict .
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“The fact that Turkey may have a positive role ensuring the unblocking of NK, ensuring the normal economic cooperation in the region is very important factor., which we always take into account,” said he adding that if Armenia and Turkey “decide to come back to their agreements” without the precondition of NK, then they “will just be happy.””As an excellent diplomat Lavrov masterly avoided that question,” noted David Shahnazaryan, adding,”But Maria Zakharova gave the answer to that question, which, mildly said, was not pleasant, when she noted that “the sides to come to an agreement””.
According to Mr. Shanhnazaryan, there was a very noteworthy moment in the statement of the Co-Chairs with the results of the regional visits, when the three Ch-Chairs noted, that each of the presidents expressed his opinion how they saw the ways for the continuation of the settlement process.
Then D. Shahnazryan reflected on statement made by American Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick during the press conference in Yerevan, in which he had spoke about Aliev’s statement on awarding “autonomy to NK” made during the interview.
“Warlick welcomed Aliev’s statement as he noted “that lays a base for a discussion about the status of NK, not that it is the last word.”
“From this it can be deduced that before that the issue of the status had not been discussed,” said David Shahnazaryan.
At the begging of October President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev confessed at the government session that pressure was made on him during the negotiations, demanding to recognize the independence of NK.
“Behind the closed doors they make pressure on us to recognize the independence of NK. We do not reveal much details because there are diplomatic rules. Azerbaijan will never agree on that,” had said President of Azerbaijan.
Touching upon the abovementioned statement of Aliev, Mr. Shahnazaryan evaluated it in the following way
“Aliev is in torments, when he mentions that they make pressure on him in order to recognize the independence of NK. After that in the interview given to Dmitry Kiselyanov on the “Ria Novosti”, the President of Azerbaijan spoke giving an autonomous status but our press concentrated only on that episode, whereas there was more important message directed to Putin, the meaning of which is the following – we are ready to enter into Eurasian Union if we come back to “Lavrov’s plan”- return of the territotries.”
Touching upon the settlement of Armenia-Turkey relationship and the settlement processes of NK, David Shahnazaryan noted, “How unpleasant it is for us to record but they are interconnected issues. The settlement of these two issues most probably will go parallel, maybe with different speed.
David Shahnazaryan is sure, that no matter who the president of the USA will be elected, the US will continue its efforts in the settlement of Armenia-Turkey relationships. However, Mr. Shahnazaryan is sure that there is no need for moderators in of Armenia-Turkey relationships.
EMMA GABRIELYAN
