Azernews.Az

Present-day Azerbaijan is many-fold more powerful than Armenia in terms of its military potential, economic and other resources, a representative of the Armenian opposition bloc has said.
Levon Zurabyan, the coordinator for the Armenian National Congress, told a news conference in Yerevan that the military and political balance of forces is changing in Azerbaijan’s favor, which is increasing tension around the possibility of a military solution of the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict faced by the two South Caucasus republics.
Regarding Armenia’s policy on Turkey, Zurabyan criticized President Serzh Sarkisian’s course. He believes that such a policy facilitates Turkey’s saying its piece on the peace process aiming to settle the Upper Garabagh conflict and puts Yerevan under significant international pressure to make concessions to Azerbaijan.
"The real reason for the Armenian authorities’ conceding is the change in the military-political balance.
"Sarkisian believes that opening the border with Turkey will grant him a strong international backing on the Garabagh issue, and, having capitalized on that, he will strangle the opposition, which is seeking democratic freedoms and to establish a legitimate government," Zurabyan said.
Armenia and Turkey have been at odds for decades. In a bid to end the long-standing hostility, the two governments signed protocols in Zurich on October 10, 2009 to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their borders. However, the documents require parliamentary approval, and Ankara has ruled out normalization with Yerevan until the conflict between Armenia, which occupies part of Azerbaijani territory, and Azerbaijan, Turkey’s ally, has been fairly resolved.*