The process of the Karabakh conflict settlement is closely bound to the Turkish-Armenian resolution.
The process of the Karabakh conflict settlement is closely bound to the Turkish-Armenian resolution, Fedor Lukyanov, chief editor of the Russia in global policy magazine said to Ekho Moskvy radio station.
He noted that Turkey and Armenia had signed agreements to open borders. At the same time, it was clear at once that these agreements cannot be implemented without real progress on Karabakh as for Turkey Azerbaijan is more than an ally. These are two closely tied states. They are bound ethnically, culturally, historically and both in the sense of oil and gas which flow by pipelines via Turkey.
Therefore, Azerbaijan gave a strong reaction to the changes of the Turkish line on Armenia. Merely, the statements that were addressed to Turkey had no precedents in the history of their relations and, therefore, Turks stopped normalization of relations. Today active diplomatic efforts are taken to promote the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. I think the most important has already occurred", Lukyanov said.
As for what is most important in these processes, the expert said:
"The most important is that the status of Karabakh within Azerbaijan is not being discussed. Earlier they said that there is only the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and that’s all, because this is an international border and so on. Today, the destiny of Karabakh is not discussed. It is clear that Karabakh and its population will not agree to be part of Azerbaijan. Only seven regions around Karabakh are at issue. This is a security zone, occupied by Armenian forces as a buffer.
The issues discussed now are provisions of their release and provision of Karabakh’s annexation to Armenia and its security. I think this is the result of the last year’s events in the Caucasus... And I think that the atmosphere has changed too. Karabakh hampers serious processes for Turkey because Turkey wants to play an important role in the South Caucasus. If the Karabakh issue is removed, the border with Armenia will open and Turkey will turn into a regional giant. Thus I think this year will be quite interesting on Karabakh.
