Russian political observer: Turkish factor has increasing influence on resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

How do you comment on the Azerbaijani president’s statement he made in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he is confident Turkey will not ratify the Armenia-Turkey protocols until Azerbaijan’s occupied lands are liberated?

In my opinion, this statement points to the link between Turkey-Armenia normalization and  settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. That's exactly what is taking place. There is no “freeze" in terms of disconnecting these processes from each other and it will unlikely happen ever.

What is the position of Armenia, which has reiterated absence of linkage between these processes?

Armenia's position is to try to disconnect the process of normalizing relations with Turkey from the process of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It will continue to make efforts in this respect. But the desire of a country and the existing realities are different things.

Has the probability of a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict increased after the Sochi meeting between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia held under the patronage of the Russian President?

No, it has not increased. It can be stated that only Turkish factor has increasing influence on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Despite optimistic statements on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict made since last year, there are no concrete progress in this matter.   

Hence all sorts of statements about the preambles which only confirms the lack of real results in the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations. This was not surprising, since Azerbaijan and Armenia have different understandings of what fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should imply. The parties have mutually exclusive approaches.

Is it possible to bring the parties together?

If I knew the exact answer to this question, it would have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But, seriously, both parties to the settlement process need to have purely pragmatic approach which would facilitate the negotiations to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

A. Hasanov