Disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh elects new parliament

Voters in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh went to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament in a vote the European Union warned it would not recognize as legitimate.

Armenia and Azerbaijan remain officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh, and the dispute is a major source of tension in the strategic South Caucasus region, which is wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey.

No country officially recognizes Karabakh as independent. “All polling stations are open. Elections are under way,” Mikael Hajian, the head of Karabakh’s central elections commission, told AFP. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » May 2010

Azeri leader sets term for Armenian border opening

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Monday that his country would open all its borders with Armenia if the government in Yerevan accepts the revised Madrid criteria and starts to withdraw its forces from Azerbaijani territory.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Aliyev said talks had been held for many years to arrive at a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Anatolia news agency reported. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » May 2010

Ankara mum on claim of thwarted Azeri-Armenia war

Ankara has neither confirmed nor denied claims that Turkey’s intelligence agency prevented an Azerbaijani military operation in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region immediately before Turkey and Armenia signed historic protocols last year.

The National Intelligence Organization, or MİT, has also not released any statement concerning the allegations, which were first published in one of Azerbaijan’s most influential opposition newspapers, Yeni Müsavat. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » May 2010

Armenian nationalist politician closes doors on dialogue

Claims of sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh are threatening to draw Armenia and Azerbaijan into a new conflict at the slightest provocation.

Although international peacemakers are actively working to settle the disputes, political experts are worried that the slightest wrong step could fuel antagonism between the two parties.

Manvel Sargsian, who organized the Karabakh movement against Azerbaijan in Yerevan in 1987, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that Russia was fueling the problem by “supporting the Azeris” in the policy to “remove the Armenians from the region.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by admin Posted in: Turkish Press No Comments » May 2010