TURKEY SEES PROGRESS IN KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS

news.az
March 2 2010
Azerbaijan

Ahmet Davutoglu Turkey’s foreign minister has referred to recent
improvement achieved by the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders in the
Karabakh settlement process.

Ahmet Davutoglu made the comments in an article entitled A Regional
Approach to Global Peace, published in the Russian journal, Rossiya
v globalnoy politike (Russia in Global Affairs).

"After the countries of the South Caucasus gained their independence,
we did our best to restore peace and prosperity in the region. But
the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia made future
regional and world cooperation difficult," Davutoglu wrote.

The minister said relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan were unique
as they were based on brotherhood. He said that Azerbaijan had become
a centre of gravity in the Caucasus owing to the development of
democracy, improvements in the economy, the human factor and natural
resources. "But the protraction of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
the occupation of 20 percent of the land by Armenia stops Azerbaijan
from making full use of this important potential," he said.

Ahmet Davutoglu said that as a member of the OSCE Minsk Group Turkey
supported a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"Unfortunately, the resolution mechanism, which is as old as the
conflict itself, has not produced any effective, concrete results yet.

Therefore, the improvement recently achieved by Ilham Aliyev and Serzh
Sargsyan is very important. The Minsk Group is the only international
instrument calling on the sides to take concrete steps to eliminate
the divergence of views and reach a peace agreement," he said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress