April 13, 2010 - 14:14 AMT
Arman Melikyan: Armenian-Turkish process doomed to failure

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are of strategic importance for Yerevan, Ankara and Washington, according to Arman Melikyan, NKR ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“Yet, Armenia implied normalization of relations with Turkey while the U.S. and Turkey pursued global interests,” he told a news conference in Yerevan.

“Tensions in American-Turkish relations will grow and Ankara’s unwillingness to ratify the protocols on normalization of relations with Armenia will arm the U.S. with a new political leverage,” Mr. Melikyan said. “The Armenian-Turkish process is doomed to failure, paralyzing Armenia.”

As to Karabakh conflict, he said he doesn’t exclude resolution of the problem in Russia-U.S.-EU format. “With Russia and U.S. approximating positions on a number of issues, the problem can be given a global solution,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Melikyan did not rule out the possibility of resumption of hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh.