By Anush Martirosian
A spokesman for the opposition leader has accused Armenia’s leadership of taking action contradicting its own official statements that oppose any change in the current format of the Nagorno-Karabakh talks. Arman Musinian on Thursday echoed the concerns expressed by Armenia’s first president Levon Ter-Petrosian at a recent opposition rally that Turkey is seeking to supplant the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, an international format of the United States, France and Russia advancing a negotiated settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
In particular, Musinian thinks that the high-level meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani officials to be held in New York upon the initiative of the Turkish foreign minister suggests that with their actions the Armenian authorities call into question their own declared position favoring a continued Minsk Group process.
“It is a fact that a trilateral meeting will be held in New York in the upcoming weeks, there is even information that they can ink some initial non-biding documents, which shows that Turkey has taken an active role in the negotiations over the Karabakh settlement,” Musinian said.
While in the Azerbaijani capital Baku only days after visiting Armenia, Turkish President Abdullah Gul stated that Armenia’s authorities had committed themselves to returning the Azerbaijani lands surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh that are currently controlled by ethnic Armenian forces.
Musinian also criticized the Armenian leadership for failing to respond to this statement.
“There has been no official response, just like there is no response to the disgraceful idea of setting up an Armenian-Turkish panel of historians (to review the 1915 events),” Musinian said.
“President Serzh Sarkisian agrees to deals with the international community at the expense of Armenia’s interests thus trying to preserve his power.”