YEREVAN (Armenpress) — Deputy Speaker of Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov responded to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s announcement earlier this week that Turkey might play a positive role in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement and bring the issue out from a deadlock.
During a briefing in the Parliament, Sharmazanov once again re-affirmed Armenia’s stance: Turkey has no business in the Nagorno Karabakh settlement process for several reasons. “Turkey is not a co-chairing country, and the co-chair can be substituted only through consensus, and we oppose this. Why? Because during these years, Turkey had a one-sided, pro-Azerbaijani stance, and sometimes even a criminal stance,” Sharmazanov said.
Sharmazanov reminded Lavrov of his own April 22 statement in Yerevan, which said Turkey’s calls during the four-day war were not calls for peace, but rather calls for war.
“Similar behavior of Turkey opposes the peaceful resolution process and the official opinion of the Minsk Group co-chairmanship. At that time Mr. Lavrov also said that Turkey’s behavior wasn’t a call for the peaceful settlement of the issue, but rather a call for military settlement. We fully agree with Lavrov’s April 22 assessment. … Because our goal, and I hope also the goal of co-chairing countries is one: to achieve peaceful settlement through mutual concessions, and not through military solution,” Sharmazanov said.
