Today.Az » Politics » Azerbaijani parliamentarian: Armenia has not yet used its chance to secure progress in Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations
03 March 2010 [11:52] - Today.Az
Day.Az interview with Chairman of Azerbaijan’s Party of Reforms and member of the Azerbaijan’s Milli Majlis (Parliament) Asim Mollazade.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will travel to France on March 9-11. What do you expect from this visit?
I expect nothing from this visit. This is the next visit to France which is a home to a strong Armenian diaspora. Such visits serve personal political goals of the Armenian leadership, which continues to take an unconstructive position on settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
And what are your comments on Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian’s statement that Armenia has presented proposals on outstanding items on the Madrid principles to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs?
Armenia has not yet taken advantage of its chance of serious progress in peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But Armenia still has such a chance. To do this, Armenia needs to accelerate work with the OSCE MG making proposals that will truly lead to peace rather than imitate the process of negotiations. All previous actions of Armenian government demonstrated the country’s unwillingness to take real steps for a just settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Can we say that non-constructive position of the Armenia leadership on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict jeopardizes future of Turkish-Armenian dialogue?
Certainly. After all, fate of the Turkish-Armenian dialogue depends on a process of establishing peace in the South Caucasus region, which envisages also settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in which Armenian leadership displays an unconstructive approach. There is no hope for opening of Turkish-Armenian border and full normalization of relations between the two countries until the reason for which Turkey closed its border with Armenia has not been eliminated yet. The Turkish leadership has also reiterated this many times.
Meanwhile, at an opposition rally held in Yerevan on Monday, leader of the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC), the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan declared that liberation of the five occupied regions have been agreed upon and now negotiations focus on status of Nagorno-Karabakh, peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone and the future of the Lachin corridor. How do you comment on this statement?
We would like very much to believe in Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s words, but his statement was most likely dictated by domestic political realities in Armenia and designed for the Armenian public. I stress once again that all previous actions of the Armenian leadership displayed the country’s non-constructive approach to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which does not give reason to make confident statements about beginning of the process of resolving the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
In your opinion, what will be the outcome of the U.S. Congress discussions on the so-called “Armenian genocide” resolution?
Adoption of the “Armenian genocide” resolution by the U.S. Congress will cause a huge blow to U.S. national interests, resulting in a loss of its allies, especially Turkey. We hope that a basic understanding of all the possible consequences will prevent the U.S. Congressmen from passing this document.
A. Hasanov
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