YEREVAN — Turkey has no place in and should be kept away from the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian said on Monday in response to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov statement about Turkey’s role in the settlement of Karabakh conflict.

“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,” Kocharian said in comments to News.am.

Visiting Yerevan on Friday, Lavrov said Moscow continues to stand for an unconditional implementation of the 2009 Turkish-Armenian normalization agreements. “But we have a sense that progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement will be key to the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations,” the TASS news agency quoted him as telling Russian reporters.

Lavrov also said that Turkey could play a “positive role” in the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process by “unblocking Nagorno-Karabakh” and “ensuring normal economic contacts in the region.” He did not elaborate.

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov also responded to Lavrov’s announcement, saying that Turkey has no business in the Nagorno Karabakh settlement process for several reasons.

“Turkey is not a co-chairing country, and the co-chair can be substituted only through consensus, and we oppose this. Why? Because during these years, Turkey had a one-sided, pro-Azerbaijani stance, and sometimes even a criminal stance”, Sharmazanov said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sign Up for Our Newsletters

Get notified of the latest updates from MassisPost.

You May Also Like

New Editions of Raffi – Armenia’s Foremost Novelist

Expertly translated from the original Armenian by Donald Abcarian and Ara Stepan…

Armenia Down to 91st in FIFA World Ranking

YEREVAN — Armenia fell eight notches in FIFA’s latest rankings, released Thursday,…

Alexander Lapshin: By Arresting Me Azerbaijan Increased the Number of Tourists Visiting Artsakh

Trying to intimidate the whole world, Azerbaijan contributed to the growth of…

Panel at MIT to Shine \”Spotlight on Nagorno-Karabakh: The Four-Day War and Its Aftermath\”

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Dr. Antranig Kasbarian, Nagorno-Karabakh program director for the Tufenkian…