Azerbaijan and Armenia need to settle the issue of returning five regions and half of Kelbajar, deputy Asim Mollazade says.
The Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan held a roundtable discussion on “The Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: outcomes of 2009 and further perspectives” with the participation of leading political scientists, representatives of the presidential administration, experts and mass media.
The process of settling the Armenian-Turkish relations is connected with the campaign promises of US President Barack Obama and State Secretary Hillary Clinton about the recognition of the so-called “Armenian genocide,” MP Asim Mollazade said in connection with the recent situation with Turkish-Armenian rapprochement.
According to Mollazade, president Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton coming to power realized immediately that the recognition of the so-called “genocide” will result in a failure of the US policy in the Middle East and the Caucasus.
“Looking for a way out of this situation, they decided to keep their promises to the Armenian lobby in another way and to try to open the border between Armenia and Turkey. Due to the tough stance of Azerbaijan, our Turkish brothers understood danger of such developments which helped prevent the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border without the settlement of the Karabakh conflict ,” said Mollazade.
The MP noted that Azerbaijan’s energy sector has successfully diversified: “If we receive interesting proposals for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict from Russia, we are ready to consider the issue of additional supplies and transit of Azerbaijani gas.
Mollazade, referring to the current negotiations on settling the Karabakh conflict, stressed that now there is a need to settle the issue of returning five regions and half of Kelbajar. “There is a possibility to sign a framework agreement, but still we have to hold complicated negotiations on the return of the rest of Kelbajar, Lachin and the settlement of the issue of Karabakh’s status,” he said.
He also listed the main reasons of intensification of Russia’s role in the negotiation process on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2009.
According to him, one of the reasons was the August war in 2008.
“A new situation emerged in the region after the war. Russia is the main initiator of changes in the region. Last year’s conflict produced a definite situation in relations between Russia and the West. Trying to smooth tensions, Russia has noticeably intensified its peace efforts aimed at resolving the Karabakh conflict.
The second reason is the initiated struggle for the monopoly of gas supplies to Europe. In this process, Russia seeks to control all routes of gas supplies to Europe. Russia is interested in participation in Azerbaijani gas supplies from new fields to Europe ,” said the deputy.
