Epress.am News from Armenia
No one from outside can force Armenia, Azerbaijan or Turkey to take this or that step. These countries have to sit together and resolve their problem, said former US Ambassador to Armenia John Marshall Evans today at the “Assessing Independence in Armenia and the Region” public forum organized by the Civilitas Foundation.
“As you know we often have difficult relations with Turkey, as, for example, in the war with Iraq, Turkey refused to get troops into Iraq. Thus, America can’t force, it can support processes through different formats, but resolving the conflict is the problem of those countries,” he said.
German Ambassador to Armenia Hans-Jochen Schmidt, also speaking on the panel, likewise emphasized that the “outside world” cannot force a decision.
“The EU also takes steps in the issue of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the normalization of relations with Turkey, but they can’t force anything,” he said.
Schmidt said the most important step in Armenia-Turkey relations is the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, after which discussions on other issues will begin.
“What’s important is that the parties understand that by establishing diplomatic relations, no one is doing anyone a favor; it is a normal process,” he said.