MORE CONTACT WITH ARMENIA IN THE OFFING, SAYS BABACAN
Today’s Zaman
Nov 13 2008
Turkey
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan (R) speaks during a joint press conference
with his Algerian counterpart, Mourad Medelci, on Wednesday.
Turkey will intensify contacts with Armenia and Azerbaijan, Foreign
Minister Ali Babacan said yesterday, announcing that his Armenian
counterpart, Eduard Nalbandian, will soon visit Turkey.
Babacan, speaking at a news conference after talks with visiting
Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci, also said he would visit
Azerbaijan, which has been locked in a dispute with Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabakh, under Armenian occupation since the early 1990s. The
dates for the visits will be announced later, said Babacan, adding
that there will be intense diplomacy among the three countries until
end of the year.
Babacan had three-way talks with Nalbandian and Azerbaijan’s Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in New York on the sidelines of UN General
Assembly in September, where they discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh
dispute.
The row has poisoned not only Armenia-Azerbaijan ties but also
relations between Turkey and Armenia. Turkey severed its ties with
Armenia and closed its border with the landlocked country in 1993 in
show of solidarity with Azerbaijan. There have been no formal ties
between the two countries since then, and Ankara says the normalization
of relations depends on Armenian withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh and
an end to Yerevan’s support for the Armenian diaspora’s efforts to
win international recognition for claims that Armenians were subjected
to genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
President Abdullah Gul broke the ice when he paid a visit to Yerevan to
watch a soccer match between the two countries’ national teams in early
September. Gul invited Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan to Turkey
for the next game between the two countries’ teams next year. But
Babacan suggested the next meeting would be earlier than that.
Asked when the two presidents would meet again, Babacan said it was
not necessary to wait for another soccer game for the next top-level
meeting between Turkey and Armenia. "My expectation is that such a
meeting could take place in months," he said. "What is important here
is the Caucasus platform for lasting peace and stability."
Turkey has proposed a Caucasus Cooperation and Stability Platform
to improve dialogue for conflict resolution among regional countries
following a brief war between Georgia and Russia over the breakaway
region of South Ossetia. The proposed platform is planned to include
Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosted a summit with Sarksyan
and Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev early this month to discuss
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Babacan reiterated that Turkey supported
the Russian initiative and said Russia’s role was crucial in efforts
to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
A new three-way meeting of the foreign ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan
and Armenia is also planned, but the agenda should be set carefully
before deciding on a date, Babacan said. The foreign minister also
said his Georgian counterpart told him in a recent visit to Ä°stanbul
that Georgia would be part of the proposed Caucasus platform, despite
earlier Georgian statements that the country would not sit at the same
table with Russia unless it fully withdraws its troops from Georgia.
Gul will visit Azerbaijan today to attend an energy summit in the
capital city of Baku at the invitation of his Azerbaijani counterpart,
President Aliyev.
Turkey, Algeria discuss political, energy cooperation
The foreign ministers of Turkey and Algeria have said they saw eye
to eye on many issues when they met to discuss efforts for peace in
the Middle East and cooperation in business and energy yesterday.
"Algeria and Turkey are two countries that work for stability and
peace in their region. Our views on many problems and our stances on
the right solutions for regional problems overlap," Turkish Foreign
Minister Ali Babacan said at a joint press conference with his Algerian
counterpart, Mourad Medelci, in Ankara.
Medelci said the two countries had grown apart from each other in the
past but that they have been converging again in recent years. Now,
he stressed, there is growing cooperation in many areas. He added
that they had discussed expanded cooperation in trade, energy,
investment, tourism and the banking sector and that, in politics,
the two countries would work together for a more just world.
Turkey currently imports liquefied natural gas from Algeria. Babacan
said Algeria helps Turkey deal with shortages when there are
fluctuations in natural gas supplies from other countries by increasing
the amount of liquefied gas it provides. The two countries agreed
to have more talks to expand the existing cooperation in this area,
he added. Ankara Today’s Zaman
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