Both Armenia and Azerbaijan will have to make concessions to resolve the Karabakh conflict, the US ambassador to Armenia has said.
Addressing students at the American University in Yerevan yesterday, Marie Yovanovitch said that the USA, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group mediators, could see room for progress on a Karabakh settlement.
At the same time, she acknowledged that the issue was highly sensitive both for Armenia and Azerbaijan. 'The status quo is not profitable for either side. The Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities must have a strong political will to advance a peace solution to this conflict, since a solution will not give either party 100% of what it desires.'
'The international community does not want unilateral concessions from Armenia, but it is clear that both sides will have to compromise and this is inevitable,' she continued.
As for the status of Karabakh, the ambassador said that no country, including Armenia, had recognized Karabakh as an independent country.
The ambassador said that between 30 and 40 people died on the contact line every year, which meant there there was a threat of destabilization. She said that as the number of casualties was high, it was difficult to say what might happen at any moment. 'Therefore, it is necessary to establish peace in the region.'
The ambassador said, however, that Armenia and Azerbaijan were unlikely to reach agreement soon.
Referring to the stalled rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey, Yovanovitch said that the USA welcomed the decision of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to suspend the ratification of the rapprochement protocols rather than to stop the process altogether.
Yovanovith said that relations between Armenia and Turkey had not normalized as soon as expected, but progress had nonetheless been made.
The ambassador said that the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations would promote progress in both countries and the region as a whole. She said Armenia could not develop with closed borders.
'Closed borders in the 21st century are an abnormality,' the ambassador repeated several times during her speech.
She said that if Armenia and Turkey opened the borders, this would open a market of 80 million people for Armenia and boost GDP. The ambassador hoped the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan would open too.| < Prev | Next > |
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