Turkey could exert its influence to settle Nagorno-Karabakh, Hasan Köni, an expert on Turkish foreign policy from Galatasaray University, said.
Turkish foreign policy is now designed in a way that is set to compromise on a wide range of issues to achieve a breakthrough, which could be true for the Cyprus problem, the Kurdish issue and Nagorno-Karabakh.
He argued that the OSCE Minsk Group had been established to keep the leaders of the two sides talking, using delaying tactics [to prevent any outbreak of war]. “I have ‘wrestled with France’ as I was an adviser to a [foreign minister] in the mid-1990s when the EU member state worked assiduously to stop the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, through the use of the alleged Armenian genocide issue,” he said. The primary goal of France, Köni said, is to block Turkey’s route to Central Asian energy resources and prevent better ties with Turkic countries.
Köni alleged that Russia has many military bases in Nagorno-Karabakh that help it command an extensive area in the Caucasus region. The country has also been a historical and long-established ally of Armenia. Köni also said the Armenian lobby in the US makes this country antagonistic to Turkey and Azerbaijan on the Armenian issue. “These are the co-chairs of the Minsk Group. A complete ‘delaying’ tactic,” Köni said.
Drawing a pessimistic and bleak picture, Köni said as a member of the OSCE Minsk Group there is less that Turkey can do because Turkey is now in a position that allows it to step back with regard to many issues that it is involved in to reach a deal rather than moving on the offensive.
Talks over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh are very analogous to the Middle East peace process between Israel and Palestine in terms of the methods used to keep the sides talking. Russia is continually rewarding Armenia to make it stay at the negotiating table and push the Azerbaijani side to keep talking as a way to prevent Azerbaijan from resuming the war against Armenia.
Azerbaijan, as a result, is trying to persuade the international community that the conflict poses an imminent danger to security in the region, including vulnerable energy routes, Köni said.
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