Shahnazaryan is concerned about Russia's vigor
"The efforts of the Armenian authorities in football diplomacy led to the opening of a new front in foreign policy with the creation of the second conflict, that is, the Turkish-Armenian conflict. It is a completely logical stage of the conflict," said today representative of the Armenian National Congress David Shahnazaryan.
According to him, Armenia will soon ratify the Protocols under pressure from the USA. Shahnazaryan notes that Russia was active in the initial stage of the process and that it was Russia's initiative to normalize Turkish-Armenian relations and open the border after Serzh Sargsyan's statement in Moscow.
"Russia is not active today and one gets the impression that it needed the signing of the Protocols, but not the opening of the border. Today Russia is not hiding the fact that it is against the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border," said Shahnazaryan.
Shahnazaryan believes that Turkey will not ratify the Protocols even if Armenia does as long as there is no certain progress in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In addition, Turkey will prolong the process until April 24. On April 14, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan will meet with US President Barack Obama. According to the ANC representative, Obama will obviously not pronounce the word "genocide". In general, Shahnazaryan finds that the US will recognize the Armenian Genocide only after Turkey does so.
In regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Shahnazaryan is concerned with Russia's vigor as it tries to change the format of the OSCE Minsk Group or leading the process of settlement along with Iran and Kazakhstan. With that purpose, Putin, according to Shahnazaryan, sent Kocharyan to Iran on a business trip, turned Kazakhstan into the acting OSCE president and is presenting proposals that are different from the proposals of the OSCE Co-Chairs through Kazakh President Nazarbayev.
He noted that Azerbaijan had tried to change the format, but today, the country accepts the updated Madrid Principles, while it is Armenia that is searching for new roads under the patronage of Russia and Iran.
According to Shahnazaryan, the conflict settlement is conditioned by relations between Moscow and Washington. Russia is doing everything possible to prolong the conflict settlement. As for the rumors according to which the parties must solve the conflict, according to him, talk about the prolongation because the current status-quo favors both sides. What will be Armenia's choice? Will it go with the version suggested by Russia or the West? In response, David Shahnazaryan said:
"The Armenian authorities will make any choice, even a choice of Muslim in terms of religion only to extend their power."
