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WikiLeaks: Serzh Sargsyan was ready to withdraw troops from five regions, but Turkish-Armenian protocols prevented it

28 September 2011 14:58 (UTC +04:00)

According to the US ambassador Mary Jovanovichâ€™s dispatch to Washington her mission in Armenia was to normalize Turkish-Armenian relations within the framework of â€œfootball diplomacyâ€ and to form good political environment for signing the Turkish-Armenian protocols.

Jovanovich considered to support Sargsyanâ€™s administration and to protect the government from the out-of-parliament opposition, which was represented in the Armenian National Congress in that time. Jovanovich tried to win Armenian National Congressâ€™ and its leader Ter-Petrosyanâ€™s support for Turkish-Armenian rapprochement. The second goal of the US was to form strong opposition against Serzh Sargsyan regarding the issues of Armenian-Turkish normalization and Nagorno Karabakh conflict, if he resists. Armenian National Congress generally supported the Turkish-Armenian normalization, but it didnâ€™t intend on the track of US policy. Ter-Petrosyan was against the joint commission of Turkish and Armenian historians.

US policy in Yerevan aimed to support Sargsyanâ€™s administration and at the same time to use opposition for its purposes. But this scheme is not effective because opposition refuses to move under the US dictation for Washingtonâ€™s support. US diplomats focused attention on Robert Kocharyan, parliament speaker Ovik Abramyan and oligarchs. They said that Sargsyan was threatened mostly by the forces, who sit him in the presidentâ€™s armchair.

The documents also noted that Zurich protocols prevented the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict. â€œFormer foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan said that Serzh Sargsyan was ready to withdraw the troops from five regions around Nagorno Karabakh, but Turkish-Armenian protocols prevented itâ€.

The diplomatic messages showed that the scenario of opening the Turkish-Armenian borders and establishing diplomatic relations was written by Obama administration. The documents proved that before launching the Zurich process, Armenia agreed to withdraw troops from five regions of Azerbaijan, but start of â€œfootball diplomacyâ€ between Ankara and Yerevan under the US pressure broke the negotiation process. The facts prove that in that time Azerbaijani presidentâ€™s statements, which stressed that opening of Armenian-Turkish borders will make Armenia more tough and break the progress in the negotiation process, reflected full reality. The public community should know that as a result of destructive position of US administration, the negotiation process, which was directed in constructive course and meeting the national interest of Azerbaijan, was broken.