Internal problems put off ratification of protocols in Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Kurdish and Cyprus issues as well as probable early elections in Turkey have put off ratification of the protocols, according to expert Ruben Melkonyan.



"These problems can enable Turkey to drag out the ratification process," he told a news conference in Yerevan on Friday. "Anyway, Armenian leadership will never agree to link Karabakh settlement to normalization of relations with Turkey."



"It's hard to make forecasts but I don't think Turkey may ratify protocols if Armenia doesn't make concessions on Karabakh," Melkonyan said.



TheProtocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks held through Swiss mediation.



On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country's Organic Law.



The Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) is a de facto independent republic located in the South Caucasus, bordering by Azerbaijan to the north and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west.



After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923 it formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that was fought from 1991 to 1994.



Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the control of Nagorno Karabakh defense army.



Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.