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Bernard Fassier: â€œTurkey’s mediation in regulation of Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not possibleâ€

22 July 2009 17:44 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Turkey, in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan, closed its border and severed diplomatic ties with Armenia in 1993. Ankara and Yerevan, however, are now in talks to normalize relations and have been holding closed-door meetings to discuss the matter. Azerbaijan, Turkey’s regional and ethnic ally and a key energy supplier, has expressed concern over the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, fearing it would lose key leverage in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, said French Co-Chair of OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Fassier, APA reports quoting Todays Zaman.
Ankara says the Turkish-Armenian and Azerbaijani-Armenian processes are separate, although progress on one will positively affect the other.
Recalling that Azerbaijan and Turkey consider themselves â€œone nation, two states,â€ Fassier ruled out the possibility of Turkey’s mediation in the process, indicating that Turkey was actually a party in the issue.
â€œTurkey’s mediation in this process is not possible. Common sense demands this,â€ he said, while reiterating that the Nagorno-Karabakh process and the normalization efforts between Ankara and Yerevan should be considered two independent processes. Fassier, nonetheless, called the two issues â€œtwo processes within the same regional areaâ€ and admitted that any progress in one of the two processes might have a â€œpositive and usefulâ€ impact on the other process.
The Nagorno-Karabakh issue has sometimes been used in domestic policy in Turkey, and linking the Turkish-Armenian and Azerbaijani-Armenian processes might lead to no resolution for either of the problems, he also warned.