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 YEREVAN
(Combined Sources)—Armenia’s foreign minister, Eduard Nalbandian,
Wednesday responded to the most recent remarks by Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev who announced that the current phase of
Karabakh peace talks were focusing on the return of the
liberated territories surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
“I don’t know with whom the Azerbaijani side
is negotiating over these issues, but I assure you that Armenia
and Karabakh aren’t discussing the issues currently. For over a
year the Azeri side refused to hold the negotiating process in
accordance with the Madrid principles and was even claiming no
such document existed. Now the talks are held over one issue
only – the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status,” Nalbandian told
parliament.
On recent reports in the Azeri and Turkish
press regarding the possibility for Turkey to become a co-chair
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Nalbandian said that Ankara cannot
ascend to that position if for no other reason than the fact
that it would require the approval of the Armenian side in the
talks. Nalbandian added that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs had
repeatedly voiced the same position on the matter.
Nalbandian again rejected any linkage between
Karabakh peace and the Turkish-Armenian normalization. “The
Turks may make such attempts but who is going to let them link
the two issues?” he said, adding that “Not Armenia, nor Karabakh
or the international community.”
Turkish leaders have made clear that Turkey’s
parliament is unlikely to ratify the agreements without a
breakthrough in the Karabakh conflict resolution process, with
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday again
highlighting the imperative for a resolution to the Karabakh
conflict before the ratifying of the Turkey-Armenia prtocols.
“Official Ankara attaches huge importance to
preserving Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,” the Anatolia
news agency quoted him as saying. Davutoglu also opined that the
Turkish-Armenian protocols could “pave the way for the
liberation of Azerbaijani territories,” reported RFE/RL.
Meanwhile, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said
on Wednesday that Armenia and Turkey will hold no further major
negotiations until the ratification of the protocols by their
parliaments,
“No Turkish-Armenian negotiations are being
held right now,” ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan told RFE/RL.
“We are now waiting for the ratification. Each country has its
own ratification procedures.”
“According to the timetable attached to the
protocols, the next step is the ratification,” said Balayan.
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